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fuzeon injections
Jul 12, 2005
Can fuzeon injections be used on people who are skin and bones minus any bodyfat? Is the needle the size of a diabetic needle or larger? I have severe lypodystrophy and no bodyfat. Where would I inject or could I?
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Response from Mr. Kurtyka
Fuzeon is absorbed into the body when injected into subcutaneous fat. One of the most common concerns I hear from patients is that they don't have enough fat to inject into. This can be problematic in that 1) the medication might not be absorbed properly and 2) people may experience significant injection site reactions from the medicine because it's being injected into tissue and not into subcutaneous fat.
If you have any fat (upper arms, butt, elsewhere), check with your healthcare provider to see if they are comfortable with you using these alternative sites (usual sites are upper arms, upper thighs and abdomen).
The needle size is the size of an insulin (syringe) but there are smaller insulin syringes on the market that might make Fuzeon therapy less irritating for some people. The Fuzeon kit comes with a 27 guage needle; I think the smallest insulin syringe available is a 28.5 guage (pretty tiny).
If you truly have minimal or no fat, Fuzeon may not be the best option for you. If you have access to a clinical trials unit, you may want to check out CCR5 and other entry inhibitor studies as well as other agents like TMC114, TMC125 and others that hopefully are active in the presence of significant resistance.
Good luck!
--dk
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