The word syringe is a term that comes from the Greek "syrinx" which means "tube". A syringe is a cylindrical instrument, made of glass, metal or plastic, which has inside a plunger that sucks or impels liquids, as the case may be, and with a tip that ends in a cannula, which includes a hollow needle. that penetrates the area of the body, where you want to introduce or extract a liquid. The disposable plastic syringes that are currently used were invented by the Spanish Manuel Jalón, an aeronautical engineer by training and air force officer and inventor. This kind of syringe was easy to manufacture and very inexpensive.
The syringe is used to introduce small portions of liquid into the body or to extract samples from it. Generally, it is filled by submerging the needle in the liquid and pulling the plunger, then the needle is placed upwards and the cylinder is pressed to expel the air bubbles that have been lodged in it, then the needle is inserted and the liquid is expelled inside pressure on the plunger, this procedure is called an injection.
Syringes come in different sizes and for different uses, however, there are four types of syringes that are the most used:
The insulin syringe is a type of syringe that can be identified very easily. It has a barrel with measurements to calculate insulin in units of 50 to 100, these contain 1 cc of liquid, with a half-inch needle, this kind of syringe is designed to be used only once.
The tuberculin syringe is one that has a 1cc barrel. Its design is used to perform tuberculosis tests, in order to diagnose the disease. To perform this test, only a dose of 0.1cc is needed, as this is a very small amount, it cannot be measured with other syringes, however, this type of syringe can be used for the application of other injectable medicines of little quantity, normally the syringe does not have a needle, so the person is free to choose the appropriate size to be used.
Medical syringes are of various sizes, usually between 3cc to 120cc and come with two kinds of tips, the first is the Luer lock type, these syringes have a spiral at the tip to securely join the needles and other accessories, such as saline or intravenous tubes. The other class is the catheter tip, these have an elongated smooth nozzle, where you can connect Foley catheters and feeding tubes.
