Two case reports of retained steel insulin pump infusion set needles

Insulin pumps are common in the management of type 1 diabetes (T1D). We report two cases of metal insulin infusion set needles which broke off the tubing and remained embedded in the soft tissue of two boys with T1D (five needles in one case, and one needle in the other). The patient with five retained needles was asymptomatic and had a normal physical examination, and the missing needles were only detected using pelvic X-ray; the second patient had only mild discomfort. While these are the first such cases reported in the medical literature, there may be other cases which have gone unnoticed, suggesting the potential need to explore the safety of this product further.