Fat Ass!

[Dave_Schuldt]

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Bigger Butts Need Longer Needles for Injections

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Study finds many patients fail to receive a full

drug dosage.

 

From Reuters

 

November 28, 2005, 5:59 PM EST

 

CHICAGO -- Fatter rear ends are causing many drug

injections to miss their mark, requiring longer

needles to reach buttock muscle, researchers said

today.

 

Standard-sized needles failed to reach the buttock> muscle in 23 out of 25 women whose rears were

examined after what was supposed to be an

intramuscular injection of a drug.

 

Two-thirds of the 50 patients in the study did not

receive the full dosage of the drug, which instead

lodged in the fat tissue of their buttocks,

researchers from The Adelaide and Meath Hospital in

Dublin said in a presentation to the annual meeting

of the Radiological Society of North America.

 

Besides patients receiving less than the correct

drug dosage, medications that remain lodged in fat

can cause infection or irritation, researchers

Victoria Chan said.

 

"There is no question that obesity is the underlying

cause. We have identified a new problem related, in

part, to the increasing amount of fat in patients'

buttocks," Chan said.

 

"The amount of fat tissue overlying the muscles

exceeds the length of the needles commonly used for

these injections," she said.

 

The 25 men and 25 women studied at the Irish

hospital ranged in age from 21 to 87.

 

The buttocks are a good place for intramuscular

injections because there are relatively few major

blood vessels, nerves and bones that can be damaged

by a needle. Plentiful smaller blood vessels found

in muscle carry the drug to the rest of the body,

while fat tissue contains relatively few blood

vessels.

 

Obesity affects more than 300 million people

worldwide and is based on a measure of height versus

weight that produces a body mass index above 30. An

estimated 65 percent of U.S. adults are overweight

or obese

 

Copyright © 2005, The Los Angeles Times

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