When was the first hypodermic syringe used

Medical Trolleys and Carts. Stretchers and Rescue Equipment. Medical Lighting. Medical Screens. View all Furnishing. Anatomical Charts. Anatomical Models. Anatomical Art. View all Education. Nursing Kits. Nursing Stethoscopes. Safety Glasses. Fob Watches. View all Nursing Free Engraving. Student Diagnostic Sets. Student Kits. View all Students.

GST exl. Equipment View All. Consumables View All. Furnishing View All. Education View All. Nursing View All. Students View All. Promotions View All.

Welch Allyn Blood Pressure Monitors. Welch Allyn ECG. Welch Allyn Diagnostic Equipment. View all Promotions. The Greeks The hypodermic needle is tied inextricably to an older concept, the syringe.

Francis Rynd To graduate from squishing fluids down tubes into and out of the body via orifices to injecting below the skin, humanity needed a tiny hollow needle. Regnier de Graaf Although the exact date remains unknown, de Graaf developed a metal barreled syringe in the 17th century.

Letitia Mumford But don't think for a second that the history of the hypodermic needle is entirely down to men! This pattern persisted until plastic superseded it. It was manufactured by many companies with minor modification all over the world.

All glass syringes retained some popularity but were more susceptible to jamming and leaking Figure Cartridge syringes were popular with dentists, and for emergency kits Figure The collection contains several special purpose syringes and syringe sets. The anaesthetic syringe set was in common use by GPs and specialists. One that took us a while to identify is shown in Figure The copper cased cannulas and the thick metal syringe with a robust screw lock retain heat to enable the injection of melted paraffin wax into hollow organs and vessels for demonstration specimens for morbid anatomy classes.

This was designed for analysis of diluted concentrations of biological fluid components where accurate measurement of precise quantities is required.

The enclosed booklet suggests that it was particularly used in immunology research and assessment where serial dilutions are critical, but toxicology would suggest itself as another application. Needles and syringes were routinely sterilised in sets, usually by simple boiling but in clinics and hospitals autoclaves were used to obtain higher temperatures. Syringe sets enabled the non-interchangeable components to be kept together.

Single use items now dominate the products though occasionally glass may be used in preference to plastic because of the characteristics of the substance to be injected. However, most syringes, intravenous giving sets and intravenous catheter placement sets are made from plastic with stainless steel needles, wrapped in cellophane and sterilised using gamma irradiation Figure Expensive modern biological pharmaceuticals are often distributed in a single dose syringe with, plastic and rubber plunger with a sealed needle incorporated into the glass barrel for self- administration.

This means the syringe is the container for the medicine and reduces the chance of wastage Figure For more stories from across the Faculty of Medicine, visit MayneStream , our content hub. Skip to menu Skip to content Skip to footer. Site search Search. Site search Search Menu. A history of syringes and needles. Robert Craig. Some needles from the collection: Figure 1 shows three generations of needles.

Lady Norman Wing - The oldest operating theatre in Queenslan Editorial - December The first books on the applications of intravenous infusions in humans were published in Germany by Major Chirurgia Infusoria and Elsholtz Clysmatica Nova. Bladders of animals or enema syringes were used as instruments. Because of lethal accidents the infusions soon fell from favour. After this crucial experiment, foreign bodies in the esophagus were the most important indication for applying intravenous injections until Killian introduced extraction by esophagoscopy in Calibrated syringes after pravaz: The French surgeon C.

Pravaz in Lyon in invented a small syringe, the piston of which could be driven by a screw thus allowing exact dosage. A sharp needle with a pointed trocar could be introduced into the vessel making a dissection unnessessary.