Research on Clinical Nurses' Intramuscular Injection Techniques and the Induration of the Injection Site with Intramuscular Injection of an Oil-based Solution

Abstract

　Induration of the injection site caused by an oil-based solution has been reported to be a problem. However, the current status of occurrence of induration induced by fulvestrant is unknown. The purpose of this study was to understand the current status of occurrence of induration induced by fulvestrant, nurse injection techniques and nursing care with intramuscular injection of fulvestrant. We performed a descriptive study using a questionnaire survey sent to 169 nurses who had used fulvestrant at a hospital in Japan. Fifty-four nurses replied to our survey. The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Fisher's exact test. This study was approved by the institutional review board at the University of Human Environments. Thirty hospitals (55. 6％) reported the occurrence of induration by fulvestrant. Induration tended to occur regardless of weight or complications of the patients, and it occurred in patients with continual injection for more than three months. Nurses chose “the site of Clark” (66. 7％) as the most common primary site of injection. The most common primary site of injection was significantly associated with the occurrence of induration (P＜0. 01). These findings showed that nurses choosing “the site of Clark” were likely to experience induration, but induration cannot be prevented by changing the injection site alone. The nurses in only three hospitals performed massage during their normal nursing care in order to prevent the onset of induration.