Adrianne has taught high school and college biology and has a master's degree in cancer biology.
You are at the doctor's office waiting for the doctor to finish writing a prescription for the illness that has plagued your body for the last week. The nurse enters the room to hand you the much anticipated prescription and give you instructions on how to take the medication. You are expecting something simple like a pill to take once every so many hours. What you receive is a prescription for a drug that has to be mixed with water and then injected into your body. You weren't prepared for that.
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You begin to think about the different reports you've seen in regards to contaminated drinking water. You don't drink the water that comes from the tap, you buy bottled water. At times you aren't even sure how safe that is. So what water are you going to use to inject this medicine into your body?
There are two main choices for water to use to inject medications into your body. Which of the two you use is dependent upon whether or not you need to use the water once or more than once.
The first option that you may use for mixing your medication is sterile water. This is water that doesn't have any microorganisms, also called 'microbes', living in it. By microorganisms, I mean viruses, bacteria, fungi, etc. Sterile water is designed to be used only one time, so the vial will have enough in it for one use.
It is important that you only use it one time in order to avoid contaminating the water with microbes. Just remember, sterile water is only sterile until it is opened and exposed to the air or something is inserted into to it.
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While it is safe to mix the drugs in sterile water for injection, it is not a very good idea to inject sterile water into your veins since that will upset your body's balance and may cause your blood cells to split which we refer to as hemolysis_. But for mixing drugs that have to be taken every day, it is safe to use on a regular basis.
Your other option is bacteriostatic water. In this case we are still dealing with the sterile water we just described, but it also contains benzyl alcohol which prevents the growth of bacteria in the vial. The alcohol or any other agent that prevents bacterial growth is known as a bacteriostat hence the name, bacteriostatic water. Makes sense now, right?
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The bacteriostat in the water allows you to insert a syringe into the water more than one time. It is great that the bacteriostat is in there, but you still want to take other precautions to decrease the likelihood of bacterial growth by following aseptic techniques. You should of course only use a new, sterile syringe each time you go into the vial.
As long as you are using bacteriostatic water for yourself, another adult, or child, then it is safe to use as long as the alcohol in it doesn't cause a reaction with the medicine it's mixed with. It isn't safe to use for your newborn baby though, so keep that in mind.
This lesson should have helped you to understand that not all water is the same and that is especially true when determining a water to use for mixing medications. Sterile water is water that doesn't have any microorganisms, also known as 'microbes', in it. Microorganisms are tiny living organisms such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, etc. It is safe, but injecting sterile water into your veins without the drug in it may cause your blood cells to split, called hemolysis.
Bacteriostatic water is sterile water that contains a bacteriostat, a chemical that prevents the growth of bacteria in the vial. The bacteriostat used is benzyl alcohol. The same vial can be used more than once by following aseptic techniques, which are precautions that decrease the likelihood of contamination by microorganisms. It is not safe for use in newborn babies.
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Nursing Hygiene Training11 chapters | 146 lessons
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