Evaluation of a pen injector system for growth hormone treatment.

The increasing use of human growth hormone (hGH) treatment has resulted in the introduction of a number of alternative delivery systems to conventional syringe and needle administration. We examined patients' evaluation of a new delivery system, the Kabipen (Kabi-Vitrum). We also assessed the accuracy of hGH delivery by the Kabipen. Of the 77 survey respondents 13 had used only the Kabipen, 14 the syringe only, and 50 had used both systems. Altogether 46 (92%) of those who had used both systems preferred the Kabipen. Children over 10 years were more likely to self administer hGH with the Kabipen (64%) than syringe (25%). Patient instructions, convenience of use, and comfort of use were rated better for the Kabipen than syringe. With a dose setting of 2 units the Kabipen delivered a mean (SD) of 1.997 (0.073) units with 102.5% recovery from a unit cartridge. In summary the Kabipen is an accurate device clearly preferred by the majority of hGH recipients surveyed.