This article at diaTribe discusses a study where the ease of use of both nasal and injectable glucagon was assessed. It’s encouraging to see the results of the nasal insulin, and equally discouraging to see the results of the injectable glucagon kits.
Nasal glucagon is not yet available, it hasn’t even been submitted to the FDA, but is expected to be soon. I’m looking forward to replacing our current kits with it when it does become available!
This is just a snippet from the article - please click on the link for the full diaTribe report.
Sounds very promising. My first question is, how safe is it to give a nasal spray to an unconscious person? What if they are breathing through their mouth? Or if they are conscious, what is they have a bad cold and can’t breathe through their nose? Would they have to have both kinds of glucagon on hand in that situation? (BTW, I’ve had Type 1 D for 38 years and have never gotten a glucagon prescription, so I don’t have first-hand experience.)
It looks like this study was done using the currently-available glucagon kits, and not the not-yet-available glucagon autoinjector (which is like an EpiPen, where you pull off the safety and inject—everything is automatic). I think there would be a huge difference between the ease of use of those two devices! And as someone with year-round allergies and asthma, I also wonder about the effectiveness and safety of the nasal glucagon.
