Handling and measurement
Single-Use vs Multi-Dose Vial
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Two kinds of vial that look alike on a shelf. A single-use vial contains no preservative and is meant to be entered once and then discarded, whatever is left in it. A multi-dose vial contains a preservative so it can be entered repeatedly, and it carries a shorter in-use window that starts at the first puncture. The difference is the preservative and the labelling, not the size of the glass.
Why it matters here
Which kind you have decides whether a second entry is a normal step or the end of the vial. It also decides which clock governs after opening, because only a multi-dose vial has a defined in-use window to fall back on once the seal is broken.
What it is not
Liquid left in a single-use vial is not a saved amount for later. Vials are filled with a small excess so the labelled quantity can actually be withdrawn, so the leftover is a consequence of how they are filled rather than a reserve. Size is no guide either: a large vial is not automatically multi-dose and a small one is not automatically single-use.
Also called
- single-use vial
- single use vial
- single-dose vial
- multi-dose vial
- multidose vial
- multi dose vial
- sdv
- mdv
- single use vs multi dose
SDV and MDV are the abbreviations that appear on packaging and in listings, for single-dose vial and multi-dose vial. Single-use and single-dose mean the same thing here.
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.