Handling and measurement
Injection Site Rotation
Last updated
Deliberately using a different spot each time instead of returning to the same one. It means moving between distinct areas as well as spacing out the spots within an area, and keeping some record of where you last went rather than trusting memory. The purpose is to let each area recover before it is used again.
Why it matters here
Repeatedly injecting into one small patch can produce lipohypertrophy, a firm or rubbery thickening of the tissue under the skin. It is well documented in long-term insulin use, and it matters practically because that altered tissue absorbs unpredictably, so an injection into a lumpy site does not behave like one into normal tissue.
What it is not
Moving a centimetre is not rotation, and alternating left and right within one small patch is still the same patch. The trap is that thickened tissue is often less sensitive, so it becomes the most comfortable place to inject, which quietly makes it the site you keep going back to and the thickening self-reinforcing.
Also called
- injection site rotation
- site rotation
- rotating sites
- rotation
- injection sites
- lipohypertrophy
Site rotation and rotating sites are the everyday phrasings. Lipohypertrophy breaks down as fat, excess and growth, describing tissue building up at the site; the related word lipoatrophy means the opposite, a dent where tissue has been lost.
Compounds carrying this term
None on file yet. This term is in the controlled vocabulary but no compound record currently uses it — which is a statement about our coverage, not about the term.