Sheeza Basharatabout 2 years ago

Hypodermic needle with red blood cells (RBC) under a microscope

A hypodermic needle, one of a category of medical tools which enter the skin, called sharps, is a very thin, hollow tube with one sharp tip. It is commonly used with a syringe, a hand-operated device with a plunger, to inject substances into the body (e.g., saline solution, solutions containing various drugs or liquid medicines) or extract fluids from the body (e.g., blood). Large-bore hypodermic intervention is especially useful in catastrophic blood loss or treating shock. There are many possible routes for an injection, with intramuscular (into a muscle) and intravenous (into a vein) being the most common.