Roche Diabetes Care, makers of the ACCU-CHEK portfolio of diabetes management products and services, is pleased to announce the inaugural National Infusion Site Awareness Week, Aug. 30-Sept. 5. Roche made the announcement during the 37th annual American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) conference to highlight the important role that certified diabetes educators and other health care professionals play in promoting better site management for the 400,000 people in the United States with Type 1 diabetes who use an insulin pump.
For people with diabetes, the infusion site is where an insulin pump's plastic cannula or steel needle is placed under the user's skin to administer insulin. Infusion site management is the practice of choosing a site, cleaning and preparing it, properly inserting a cannula or needle, monitoring insulin flow and then regularly rotating the insertion site to avoid infection. In most cases, this site must be changed every one-three days and the same site must not be reused for about two weeks or until the site has fully healed.
Roche is creating the week to increase understanding and education about proper infusion site management – and complications that can result from poor site management such as infection, poor insulin delivery and tissue or skin damage. A 2007 study in the American Diabetes Association journal Diabetes Care reported that some adult patients experience as many as 12 issues of irritation or infection a year because of poor site maintenance. The authors concluded that "efforts to minimize the risk of irritation, scarring, and infection should include strict adherence to proper infusion site preparation, catheter insertion, and site rotation."