You may remember my last question with a similar title. Well, I’ve accidentally purchased alcohol swabs with benzocaine in/on them (for pain relief). Will using them to clean a finger for a blood glucose finger prick screw up the glucose reading or damage the monitor or anything else bad? I don’t actually need the pain relief, I just want to avoid running to the store again.
Thank you very much.
I’m not aware of benzocaine causing any problems with a glucose test, but I’ve never really thought about it. There is no similarity between benzocaine and glucose, so the test should be just as accurate as normal. However, as normal, make sure you let the alcohol dry before you prick yourself.
You know, you don’t need the prep pads at all.
Technically this is correct, if you wash your hands with soap and water and dry them first… However considering how often and when some people have to test, this can be impractical. Plus, I would rather use the alcohol just to be on the safe side anyhow.
The skin, especially on the hands, are home to some pretty bad bacteria if they are able to get into your body bypassing the body’s defense mechanisms. Last thing you want to do is be infected by something like MRSA from testing your blood glucose level. Best to just use the alcohol to be on the safe side.
Thank you very much for the replies and information. Looks like I’m good to go!
I do unless I wash my hands every time I do a finger prick. I don’t actually have diabetes (I don’t think I do anyway) but I seem to have wide blood sugar swings (into hypoglycemia) and I want to spend a couple of days taking my blood glucose at various points - after eating certain foods, when hungry, when feeling particularly good or bad. So lots of hand washing would be really drying on my hands, for one, and also mean that I have to get up every time, which is kind of a problem (chronically ill, spend a lot of time reclining).
Unless you don’t actually have to wash your hands first, but I figured that made good sense.
(Edit: thank you for your post clearing that up, Hirka T’Bawa.)
Probably not. The FDA requires that IVDs be tested for interference, and you should be able to find that documentation with the labeling (i.e. booklet) that came with the glucometer or from a web site. OTOH, glucometers have been listed as an FDA waived device and don’t require the extensive documentation that IVDs do. Off the top of my head, I don’t think benzocaine would interfere, but I can’t say for sure unless I know what the device is and see the documentation. Ultimately, you could test the device with a small amount of glucose in water vs. the same solution with a benzocaine pad dipped in it. If you see a difference of, say, >10% in readings, then it’s possible the benzocaine is interfering.
Vlad/Igor, MS, MT(ASCP) <- appropriately used postnomials.