Longer needles produce fewer local reactions during infant immunisation

Most infants experience some local reactions to primary vaccinations, which may discourage parents from further immunisations. Two needle sizes are commonly used in general practice: the 25 gauge, 16 mm, orange hub needle and the 23 gauge, 25 mm, blue hub needle. Diggle and Deeks (p 931) conducted a randomised controlled trial to compare the rates of local reactions with these two needles after the third immunisation. The results show a clear benefit of using the longer needle (local reaction rates 62%) rather than the shorter needle (84%). The authors conclude that the results are important to vaccine manufacturers, many of which supply the shorter needle within vaccine packs.

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Relevant Article

Effect of needle length on incidence of local reactions to routine immunisation in infants aged 4 months: randomised controlled trial

Linda Diggle and Jonathan Deeks
BMJ 2000 321: 931-933. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]