What Is a Hypodermic Needle and What Is It Used For

The World Health Organization estimates there are about 2 million different kinds of medical devices on the global market. These products are essential in all facets of healthcare and range from artificial hips and pacemakers to cutting-edge software as a medical device (SaMD) and digital therapeutics. Modern medicine simply would not be possible without them. 

Like any products that hit the market, medical devices can sometimes be defective. These defects might cause unfortunate consequences like pain, discomfort, infection, and, sometimes, even death.  If the worst should happen and a patient ends up with a defective medical device, they might decide to take legal action to recoup their related costs. 

A hypodermic needle is a medical device, a hollow needle, widely used across medical settings to carry out different applications, such as drug delivery, vaccination, and blood specimen collection. These needles function through two different mechanisms, namely safety and non-safety needles. They are used to administer and inject drugs in the body and also to withdraw fluids from the body for examination and research purposes.

What Types of Hypodermic Needles Are There 

The hypodermic needles market is segmented on the basis of product type, application, end user, and region. 

On the basis of product type, the market is bifurcated into safety and non-safety hypodermic needles. The safety hypodermic needles segment is sub-segmented on the basis of type and mode of activation.

By type, safety hypodermic needles are divided into retractable and non retractable needles. By mode of activation, they are classified into active and passive hypodermic needles.

The safety hypodermic needle segment holds the largest market share owing to the technological advancements, prevention of needlestick injuries, and safety mechanisms embedded in these needles.

By applications, the market is divided into: 

• Drug Delivery
• Vaccination
• Blood Specimen Collection

The drug delivery application was the highest revenue contributor in 2020. However, the vaccination segment is anticipated to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period owing to high birth rates and increase in awareness towards vaccination globally.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended all healthcare providers to switch over to safer needles and help prevent the spread of blood-borne diseases such as hepatitis, HIV, and viral hemorrhagic fevers. Hospitals are the largest end users of hypodermic needles. Hospitals that are publicly or privately owned, multinational hospitals, specialty hospitals, and others, widely use hypodermic needles for various purposes such as vaccination, drug delivery, blood specimen collection, and others.