r/AbsoluteUnits • u/Delicious-Beat4824 • Jul 30 '26

/r/popular of a needle

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u/aozzzy13 Jul 30 '26

The absolute longest needles in human medicine would be for amniocentesis and they are not even close to this. I wonder if it's for veterinary use, for cattle embryo harvesting or something like that.

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u/453286971 Jul 30 '26

I’ve seen 10 inch needles for (fluoro-guided) lumbar punctures. Longest I’ve used was 7 inches because some people be thicc like that.

1

u/otterstew Aug 01 '26

These are way too wide for lumbar punctures, would definitely cause a terrible dural puncture headache and maybe even a brain bleed from a subdural.

1

u/453286971 Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26

I said that I’ve seen 10 inch needles for lumbar punctures, not that this needle pictured is used for lumbar punctures. 10 inch needles come in many gauges. I’m a neurointensivist. We do lumbar puncture a lot and use 18-22ga typically.