Aspiration Ring Maximizes Filler Injection Safety

Sponsored by miRing USA

Made of durable jewelry-grade sterling silver with a customizable grip, miRing from miRing USA (Atlanta, Ga.) facilitates one-handed aspiration that helps maximize the safety of filler and neurotoxin injections. With the flexibility to fit virtually any syringe, miRing provides a reusable solution to the challenges of two-handed aspiration.

“Many times, when you are trying to aspirate with two hands, by the time you have checked your needle placement, you have moved that needle around so many times that you are not even in the spot where you were initially injecting,” said Denise Merdich, MS, APRN, a master injector for 24 years, and CEO of Aestra Institute, LLC, in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Similarly, aesthetic injector, Kat Lofley, APRN, CNM, WHNP-BC, owner of Renewal Aesthetics and Sexual Wellness in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, added that when needle movement occurs with two-handed aspiration, injection accuracy decreases and patient discomfort increases.

With miRing, one simply pulls back with the injection-hand thumb to aspirate, while the needle stays put. “You don’t have to move at all,” Ms. Merdich emphasized. “It allows us to have that security when injecting.”

Fitting a syringe with miRing involves sliding the plunger flange into a grooved slot on the miRing, then sliding the miRing and syringe onto a gloved thumb. Pushing the device tightly onto the thumb secures the plunger head to the back of the slotted groove. Small disc-shaped inserts allow the ring to fit even small syringes – like neurotoxin syringes – ensuring a tight fit with even the thinnest flange.

Ms. Merdich injects approximately 30 patients daily, six days a week, and has taught thousands of injectors to use the device. More than 90% of new injectors quickly order miRing, she said. Conversely, experienced injectors may balk at adding an unfamiliar variable to their technique. miRing’s safety factor outweighs this concern, she stated. “Once you get used to it, it is second nature, like a glove.”

“There is a learning curve,” Dr. Lofley pointed out. “When I first got the miRing, I wasn’t sure that I liked it. But, I just had to rework my technique a bit, and now it would be really hard to inject without it.”

Some experts advise against aspiration, saying that it lacks evidentiary support and is no guarantee of safety. “While the latter is true,” Dr. Lofley began, “aspiration is one of the best tools available to improve dermal injection safety.”

“Anatomy tells us that there should not be vessels down on bone; however, we have seen enough observational data of people who have aspirated blood when they feel they are absolutely on bone,” Dr. Lofley expressed. She surmises that in those situations the needle may have pierced a vessel and pinned it onto the bone. “So, while the injector may still feel the tip of the needle on bone, they may still be in that vessel.”

Furthermore, aspiration causes no harm, she added. “Many people feel that they have been able to avoid a vascular occlusion by aspirating. So even though there is not an abundance of data on it yet, I have seen enough anecdotal data that I feel a little better aspirating when I inject.”