Ampules are small single use vials. They are designed to be broken at the narrow point in the neck. Most have been weakened to make this easier and mark the weak point with a printed line.

Opening an ampule:

1. To help keep the ampule and medicine as sterile as possible, use some sanitizer gel on your hands, or wash your hands thoroughly.
2. Hold the ampule upright and tap the top to remove solution from the head space.
3. Swab the neck of the ampule with an alcohol pad.
4. Wrap the neck with an alcohol pad or gauze, and grasp the top with the thumb and index finger of one hand. With the other hand, grasp the bottom of the ampule.
5. Quickly snap the ampule moving your hands away and out from you. If the ampule does not snap easily, rotate it slightly and try again. A light pressure should cleanly
   snap the ampule open, while using too much force can cause it to shatter.
6. Inspect the opened ampule for any particles of glass that might have fallen inside.

If the glass shatters when you open your ampule, wrap all the pieces in a tissue and discard. Don’t use the medicine if your ampule shatters.

Transferring the solution from the opened ampule:

1. Hold the ampule at about a 20-degree down angle.
2. Insert a needle/straw into the ampule taking care not to touch the ampule neck where it is broken.
3. Position the needle in the shoulder area of the ampule beveled edge down. This will avoid pulling glass particles into the syringe.
4. Withdraw solution but keep needle submerged to avoid withdrawing air into the syringe.
5. Withdraw needle from ampule and remove all air bubbles from the syringe.
6. Transfer the solution to the final container using a filter needle or membrane filter.

Any treatment with injectable vitamin B12 should be done under a doctor’s supervision. The initiation, administration and discontinuation of use of vitamin supplements should be under the guidance of a treating physician. Proper injection requires guidance and experience. Injections should be performed under the supervision of a doctor or medical professional.

While we don’t advise that people self inject these vitamin supplements themselves we offer a safe injection protocol for intramuscular injection as follows:

1. Swab the top of the vial with isopropyl alcohol
2. Insert the needle of a 21-24 gauge syringe into the vial and pull out the desired measure of injectable vitamin as per your Dr.’s prescription (generally .5CC-1.0CC
3. Insert the needle into one of the areas of the body without arteries and few large veins IE. the buttocks (glutimus maximus), the shoulder muscle (deltoids) or the front of the quadriceps large (rectus femoris) muscle of the leg.
4. *Before you inject the contents of the syringe into the location you’ve selected make absolutely sure you have not inserted the needle into a vein by pulling the plunger back. If you draw any blood whatsoever into the syringe then withdraw the needle immediately and pick another location.
5. Once you’ve determined that your injection site is safe and that the contents of the syringe will be injected into a muscle only, then slowly depress the plunger of the syringe until all of the syringes contents are safely inside the muscle tissue.
6. Slowly withdraw the syringe.
7. Swab the injections site with alcohol.
8. Put the cap back on the used syringe and dispose of it in a safe manner.

Yes. B12 Direct works only with government licensed laboratories. Our primary supplier has been manufacturing vitamins since 1969 and certified Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP, World Health Organisation) by Thai Food and Drug Administration.

Further we have have independently tested our vitamin B12 for quality and safety at Mérieux NutriSciences (Silliker, Vancouver CA). Our testing covers potency and common contaminants.