Bubbles in the wire

Diabetes Technology Insulin Pumps
1

I use an insulin pump. I don’t understand what a bubble in my wire represents; how do they arrive, how come sometimes they result in an occlusion, sometimes they present “not a problem.” What is your experience? I have been using a pump for four years or so.

2

Hello,

I usually don’t have any problems with air bubbles in my tubing but there are a couple of things that you can do to minimize this issue.

  1. Fill your cartridges with room temp insulin. Cold insulin results in champagne bubbles that form large bubbles later on.
  2. Use a pencil to smack the side of the cartridge to knock any bubbles to the surface and then force them out into the insulin bottle.
  3. Make sure that you are priming long enough to get rid of all the air.

If you do these 3 things you should be pretty good.

Dave

3

I had no idea about cold insulin; I will try letting it warm up to room temperature. How about the lenth of the tubing; I am using the longer tubing, but I will try what you suggest. Thank you so very much, Katherine.

4

When you prime make sure that you hold your pump “UP” so that the air bubbles go get pushed through the tubing when you prime. If you look closely you will see them travel down your tubing. I use 24 inch tubing and prime around 9 units.