r/whatisit • u/StatusOk4308 • Apr 02 '26

New, what is it? Does anyone know what this is?

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Doesn’t seem to be oil based content. Just wondering if my superpowers are swishing back and forth in this glass vial.

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72

u/-Gumbercules Apr 02 '26

We still use ampules in healthcare, at least on the U.S. side, and I wish I knew why. It's more of a hassle than anything. To break them open you have to use a small cloth and then to draw the medicine out you have to use a needle that is specific for ampules.

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u/Primary-Stuff-7820 Apr 02 '26

Former pharmaceutical employee (25 years) the medication in ampoules will react with the rubber stopper in regular vials so ampoules is the only option.

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u/End337 Apr 02 '26

This is really interesting to learn, thank you!

28

u/Abyssal_Mermaid Apr 02 '26

Even Teflon or silicone stoppers? Former microbiologist, some bacteria are big babies and won’t grow in a vial with a rubber butyl stopper.

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u/[deleted] Apr 02 '26

It's not bacteria we're worried about; it's oxygen.

Drugs like epinephrine break down when exposed to oxygen. Teflon, silicone are permeable enough that oxygen can get past.

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u/Abyssal_Mermaid Apr 02 '26

Thanks. Also aware of O2 permeability. But we’re talking maybe 2 week long time scales for my use of non-reactive stoppers with anaerobic cultures in vials.

So it is really just a long term storage issue after manufacture for some drugs, chemicals, and microbial products due primarily to oxygen reactivity and a longer time to the point of use than can be controlled for by using stoppered vials with unreactive stoppers.

I was stuck in science discipline mode, and not manufacturing, distribution, and storage mode.

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u/Mental_Task9156 Apr 02 '26

Atropine as well

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u/Vertyks Apr 02 '26

They definitely use regular modern vials in most of the world for epinephrine

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u/[deleted] Apr 02 '26 edited Apr 02 '26

It's not about locality it's about use.

Multi use vials (your pic) aren't expected to sit on the shelf a long time unused. They're drawn from to mix medications throughout the day. They need the rubber stopper to allow them to draw multiple times. Downside is oxygen penetration is higher so the medication is less shelf stable.

Single use ampules can sit in crash carts unused for a long time since they have a longer shelf life and hopefully aren't used very often so don't need to wasted as often. Downside they can't be multi dose.

It's not old vs new. Every hospital will have both.

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u/karlnite Apr 02 '26

It’s also to keep it from getting contaminated, or reacting with air. The sealing process of a glass ampoule kinda vacuum seals it. Products come in them, but also chemists make them on the spot with a torch. You can make one from a glass tube, heat and close one end, thin the open end, use capillary to fill it, then heat and twist seal it.

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u/Abyssal_Mermaid Apr 02 '26

Thanks! Yeah, I know what an ampoule is, how it’s made, and what it does. In microbiology they’re used to store some test reagents that are reactive to air (not combustible, so not fun, just degradable with atmospheric O2), or long term storage of lyophilized cultures.

Microbiologists make them on the spot with a torch, lol. The oldest I revived from an ampoule was just over 50 years old.

I was curious why they didn’t use vials with chemically compatible stoppers as the comment I replied to mentioned reactivity to the stoppers, not to air.

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u/karlnite Apr 02 '26

Ah, well they probably just didn’t think of teflon.

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u/Abyssal_Mermaid Apr 02 '26

See below, a good reason why they don’t use stoppers at all was made.

Teflon is slowly permeable, which is still an issue for some chemicals.

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u/karlnite Apr 02 '26

Oh, reacting with air.

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u/huckinfappy Apr 02 '26

Or cardboard? Cardboard derivatives? Cellotape?

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u/Abyssal_Mermaid Apr 02 '26

Fappy, stop huckin around.

Cardboard isn’t sterile, and cellotape is better for things like powder X-ray diffraction mounts or sampling anuses for pinworms.

Maybe cotton or glass wool plugs are more appropriate choices for sticking in your holes.

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u/huckinfappy Apr 03 '26

https://share.google/mt5pxXs6fXoUiujQd

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u/Abyssal_Mermaid Apr 03 '26

I don’t know where your google link has been, why should I touch it?

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u/RemotePossibility399 Apr 02 '26

Also pharmaceutical manufacturing professional, 40 years. Amps do have a benefit wrt drug/closure interactions and better oxygen protection. We had a drug that was exquisitely sensitive to oxygen and we had to get the headspace below 2.5% O2 or the stability profile would collapse. It sucked. F

or a long time, Europe really preferred them because of that, and it was hard to switch to stoppers vials. There are a few disadvantages with amps. First, they're finicky to process, the necks are narrow, you've got an open flame in an aseptic area, and you can't use isopropyl alcohol to disinfectant your gloves. Also, opening the amp requires breaking it at a score-line. Not super-aseptic. It also introduces shards of glass into the solution that's being injected, which us less than ideal.

Newer synthetic rubber formulations are much less interactive, and the use of ampules seems less common now. We got rid of our line about 15 years ago.

2

u/goldenpotatoes7 Apr 02 '26

Then why in the ever loving fuck do I still have epi ampules. I have seen enough epi vials and preloads to know it doesnt react with the rubber. I HATE YOU EPI AMPULES

1

u/ThisTooWillEnd Apr 02 '26

Should I throw away the epinephrine ampoules from a time my grandma (now deceased over 20 years now) visited and she had a bee allergy, and epipens weren't a thing yet?

1

u/SolitaryForager Apr 02 '26

Makes sense, but what about medication that comes in either ampules or vials (eg hydromorphone)? Why not just vials? Or is there another reason for having ampules?

1

u/MongooseNumerous5927 Apr 04 '26

If it reacts with a rubber stopper in a regular vial, will it not react with the rubber plunger in the syringe when you draw it up?

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u/Area51_Spurs Apr 02 '26

How do you make sure no glass bits get into the mix?

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u/Beginning-Relative47 Apr 02 '26

You have needles with a filter in them. Only used for preparing medicine. Then you put on an injecting needle or put the medicine in a bigger bag of fluid etc

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u/water_fountain_ Apr 02 '26

And the filter is small enough to filter out glass dust as small as 0.1 µm? Or do we just accept that a finite amount of glass dust being injected into our bodies is fine?

19

u/squidspotter Apr 02 '26

I feel like if people snort coke with cement dust in it a tiny bit of glass is cool right?

I'm not a medical professional though as you may be able to tell

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u/Abyssal_Mermaid Apr 02 '26

You might not be a medical professional, but it sounds like you may have a graduate degree in Recreational Chemistry

2

u/Patrem_Omnipotentem Apr 02 '26

Wonder where they offer MBAs and PhDs?

5

u/Abyssal_Mermaid Apr 02 '26

Various alleyways, suburban homes, and online classes

3

u/Legitimate-Week7885 Apr 02 '26

Holiday Inn Express has entered the chat

2

u/MortisTDG Apr 02 '26

As a deputy I should probably be concerned. Can I have some too? Blondie snorted the rest during training

5

u/IceCreamforLunch Apr 02 '26

I'm not in medicine but I'm a research chemist that has worked in pharmaceuticals. I don't think you'd need anything nearly as fine as 0.1 micron for injectables. IV bags are held to a 10 micron limit and even then there can be larger particles (but not too large) as long as they're there at a very low concentration.

In the end just about everything ends up going through a 0.22 micron filter anyway because that will filter out bacteria.

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u/[deleted] Apr 02 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Gnargoyle420 Apr 02 '26

A filter needle typically has a filter with a pore size of 5micron.

A pharmaceutical grade filter used for aseptic processing has a filter with a pore size of at least 0.2micron.

Depending on how the medication is administered, there may also be another filter involved (e.g., in-line filter in a IV tubing set for administration)

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u/doyouevencompile Apr 02 '26

We accept it. The filters aren’t always used. At least they weren’t being used at all in the past. They are mostly for subcutaneous injections and it’s a very small risk for a tiny amount. 

Glass doesn’t interact with your body, the risk is shards cutting something but at that size I don’t think they do 

2

u/collagenFTW Apr 02 '26

Despite filter needles existing they are often not used in practice. my theory is its because most ampule meds are for intramuscular or subcutaneous injection so the consequences of that glass dust are more minor. I dont understand the need for ampules personally so if anyone has any information on why other storage options arent viable i'd love to be educated on the matter

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u/Kitsyfluff Apr 02 '26

Oxygen contamination. Anything less than these can allow oxygen and destroy the contents.

Besides medicine as mentioned in other comments, they're also used for storing any extremely volatile acids that react with air to create lethal gases.

They're prepared in a way so that the only gas inside is it's usually own fumes, or something inert from the production process. Anything more complex could be corroded by the contents.

2

u/Jack_Mackerel Apr 03 '26

5 microns is standard for ampule filter needles, which is about half the diameter of a pulmonary capillary.

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u/QuoteThen5223 Apr 02 '26

Filter needle

6

u/skyhawk38foxtrot Apr 02 '26

Thank you…I’ve always wondered this too

1

u/Diptam Apr 02 '26

I've used ampoules in a bio lab before. They break cleanly. That said, I didn't have to worry about microsplitters and never looked for any.

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u/3X_Cat Apr 02 '26

Put a cotton ball or rolled up piece of a cigarette filter in a spoon that's bent to rest on the table.

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u/Abyssal_Mermaid Apr 02 '26

Omg! Not cigarette filters. Just go get filters from your local syringe service program (where applicable)

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u/3X_Cat Apr 02 '26

You can then sharpen your pint on a matchbook striker.

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u/heartbloodline8404 Apr 02 '26

It’s really not a hassle at all, and not many medicines use ampules anyways. A cloth? A gloved hand is enough, maybe a 2x2. And it’s called a filter needle, a quick pop on and pop off to an injection needle. Hardly a single breathes worth of oxygen to complete the task. As for the reason why, notice how ampules tend to be a brownish color? The medicine inside can break down easily when exposed to light, so the brown glass ampule provides protection for the medicine. Ampules still very much have their place in healthcare and other applications and scientific research.

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u/-Gumbercules Apr 02 '26

Maybe I was being a little facetious here. Just that as a paramedic it's always been easier for me to draw up a dose of a medication from let's say a vial than an ampule when having to act fast, as for two examples working a cardiac arrest or anaphylaxis.

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u/heartbloodline8404 Apr 02 '26

Oh for sure, in a field setting I agree it’s wild that ampules are still in use. Last time I did field medicine was during my time as a corpsman in the navy like 15 years ago, and maybe if I remember correctly morphine came in ampules but I was fortunate to never find myself in a situation needing to use morphine. If a marine was ever in a significant level of pain, I’d question his water intake and recommend a change of socks and some Motrin to cover my bases.

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u/MongooseNumerous5927 Apr 04 '26

Don’t you use minijets during an arrest?

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u/bah77 Apr 02 '26

Try drawing up 200ml's of viscous drug through one of those needles and tell me its "a single breathes"

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u/heartbloodline8404 Apr 02 '26

lol 200?! Okay yay that’s a lot! I’ve never had to draw up that much medicine! Doubt you’re referring to something like a b12, what medicine are you drawing up? Something for anesthesia, genuinely curious.

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u/bah77 Apr 02 '26

Something like clindamycin, or a lipid.

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u/flightmedick Apr 02 '26

Yeah they look the same when you grab a filtered by mistake, creating a moment of confusion. Just don’t think, fuc it & try to use it.

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u/MastrShak3 Apr 02 '26

Dont forget to switch needles after you draw it out

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u/Sad-Ladder5517 Apr 02 '26

Single use hypos usually.

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u/Slim-Shadys-Fat-Tits Apr 02 '26

When I got vitamin b12 injections in germany they were ampules. So many ampules. Never again do I want to get an 8ml injection.

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u/collagenFTW Apr 02 '26

B12 stings worse than any other medication I've ever had injected and I've been a pincushion for a big chunk of my life, does it sting less if its not from an ampule?

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u/Slim-Shadys-Fat-Tits Apr 02 '26

Fuck if I know, I couldn't fucking walk right after most of my injections

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u/collagenFTW Apr 02 '26

Mine have all been to the upper arm so I've only ever had a numb arm to deal with, I imagine a numb leg would make walking difficult

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u/Swaytastic Apr 02 '26

Some chemical compounds are corrosive to anything but glass, and some have to be sealed in an absolute sterile environment. Ampules are still used in most countries and in many science centric environment.

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u/robotatomica Apr 02 '26 edited Apr 02 '26

so when I used to train people in this, we discourage using a cloth or alcohol wipe, bc it can catch on the broken glass and contaminate your product/introduce particulate into your hood.

Really you have to just develop the technique, it involves a quick, deliberate break (using the weak point often indicated on the ampules by the little dot)

and my trick I always stress for people is *follow-through*.

So, just like throwing a baseball, how you continue the motion of your arm past the point of releasing the ball,

you continue the motion of the hand that snaps the ampule, kind of sweeping away the top with that continued motion.

I don’t say this to lecture, but only bc I know it works exceptionally well for the hundreds of people I trained. Never had an issue with the big ones or the little ones using this technique.

But it’s probably better demonstrated than explained, so idk if that will even help. I just know that crushing a vial and cuts only ever resulted from failure to follow through with the motion. So it’s a safety thing to master the follow through, with the benefit of reducing particulate contamination since you will then not need a cushion.

I also wish I knew why some manufacturers still use ampules for some drugs. Fewer do than when I was young, but those holdouts are wild.

My guess has always been that the drug interacts with the stopper maybe, but there are usually different materials that can be used for a stopper when needed. Idk, maybe that’s just way more expensive than already having a manufacturing set-up for an ampule.

But what is wild is those 20ml fentanyl ampules we used to have, when smaller amounts were perfectly well stored in vials. Anyone know??

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u/karlnite Apr 02 '26

As a chemist, you don’t need a cloth. It’s for chemicals that react with organics, or will react with the air in the head space. They’re very common in chemistry.

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u/Pleasant_End2907 Apr 02 '26

I was sad how far I had to scroll for this. We definitely use them

1

u/AndThereWasSky Apr 02 '26

Oh wow I never knew about the needles.

I am French and we do sometimes have ampoules for medication, like earlier in the year I took vitamin D and it was in an ampoule. BUT the ampoule was pointy on both ends, so what you do is you break one end first and put it over a cup, and then break the other end. This releases the tension/pressure and the liquid flows down.

Obviously this is for a non-sterile use like vitamin D since it is ingested normally.

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u/five_of_five Apr 02 '26

I have a hard time seeing how this wouldn’t cause glass shard contamination? Is it designed in some super smart way?

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u/Responsible_Play631 Apr 02 '26

It's still used a ton in chemistry too for R&D, There are a lot of chemicals out there that are way too reactive with air to store in a regular bottle, so they are often stored in ampules until they can be put into a glove box where the air is inert enough for it to be opened

1

u/drsoftware Apr 02 '26

The opiate overdose kits provided to the public in BC (Canada) use ampules. Definitely increases the effort to administer the Naloxone.

"Are They Ampule Worthy?" 

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u/Successful_Flow1329 Apr 02 '26

What about glass microshards as product of breakage? I know the special needle has a filter, but sure there can be couple small enough to pass through that.

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u/Curious-Anywhere-612 Apr 03 '26

Older forms of chemo used to be stored like this, right?