Vascular occlusion less likely to occur with cannulas
A study has found that vascular occlusion may be less likely to occur when dermal fillers are delivered with a cannula compared to a needle.
The retrospective cohort study, by Dr Murad Alam and colleagues from the department of dermatology at Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in the US, looked at 1.7 million injections among 370 dermatologists, evaluating injection practices and volumes and prior intravascular occlusion events.
The research group found one occlusion per 6,410 injections with needles compared to one occlusion per 40,882 injections via cannulas.
This indicated a 77.1% lower predicted instance of occlusion with a cannula compared to a needle injection. The study also found that dermatologists with more than five years of experience had a 70.1% lower chance of causing occlusion.
In terms of type of filler, no significant association was identified between cannulas at the type of product used when occlusion did occur. However, multivariate analysis found poly-L-lactic acid had 72.5% lower odds of occlusion than hyaluronic acid-based filler when used with a needle.
“Cannulas appear to be less likely to be associated with occlusions than needles,” said the authors. “But based on the data analysed, it appears both types of instruments are safe, with occlusions occurring in, on average, fewer than one per 5,000 syringes when injections are performed by dermatologists.”
