How Syringe Agitation Affects Particle Generation

If your medical device must be shipped to individual customers, any agitation during shipping has the potential to generate harmful particles.

Transportation of a prefilled syringe can agitate the drug product.  It is important to understand how agitation will affect particle generation in the syringe.  Unfortunately, the FDA does not give guidelines to test for particle contamination after agitation.  After reviewing the literature and testing various agitation methods, TriboFilm developed a protocol to evaluate particle burden after agitating syringes.  This method is also well suited for accelerated screening studies of different container components to evaluate the potential particle burden.

The Figure below shows the effects of agitation on particle generation in silicone oil lubricated syringes.

Figure:  Particle counts for the dispensed fluid from silicone oil-lubricated syringes that were either agitated or stored stationary.

One set of syringes was filled, and then the contents were dispensed and analyzed for particle contamination.  A second set of syringes from the same lot were filled and agitated, and then the contents were dispensed and analyzed for particle contamination.  The number of particles ≥2µm and ≥10µm for the two sets of samples are displayed.  Syringe agitations had a significant impact on particle generation in these syringes.

This is the equipment we use at TriboFilm to simulate agitation.