Glossary
Dead space
Also called Syringe dead space, Low dead space syringe, LDSS, Hub loss
The liquid left in the needle and hub after the plunger is fully pushed. It is not delivered, and it varies by syringe design.
In more detail
Syringes with a needle permanently fixed to the barrel, like standard insulin syringes, have very little dead space. Syringes with detachable needles keep more liquid in the hub. A UK study found that people who always used fixed low dead space syringes had a much lower rate of recent hepatitis C infection, because less blood is left behind.
For peptide users the practical points are accuracy and waste: with a detachable needle, some of every draw never leaves the hub.
Why it matters
When you mix two products in one syringe, dead space also means a bit of the first one is already sitting in the hub. Fixed-needle insulin syringes avoid most of this.
Related terms
- U-100 insulin syringeThe small insulin syringe most people use for peptides. Its scale is marked in units, where 100 units equals 1 mL, so 1 unit is 0.01 mL of liquid.
- Needle gaugeA number for needle thickness. Higher gauge means a thinner needle: a 31G needle is finer than a 29G.
- DrawPulling liquid from a vial into a syringe. To draw a dose is to measure the number of units you need on the syringe.
Sources
Each source is labeled by where the information comes from. How we label sources
- Clinical studyTrickey A et al. 2022, Low dead space syringes and hepatitis C acquisition among people who inject drugs, Clin Infect Dis(opens in a new tab)
PubMed · checked
- Reference workSyringe: standard U-100 insulin syringes(opens in a new tab)
Wikipedia · checked
Updated