Hey all!
Just browsing the different infusion sets and curious to what the advantages of a
steel canula are. It just seems like owch!!! I use the softset QR or the quickset. Why would anyone do this. . . they look soooo scary!!!!!
Not quite sure what you are referring to, however I use silhouettes (infusion sets) for my insulin pump, which are inserted by needle. In reference to them being "scary" or "hurting," well, what can I say? Needles are pretty much bound to hurt regardless of what they're used for, pumps or injections. But it's just like every other thing; sometimes they hurt, sometimes they don't bother you as much. I wouldn't suggest letting this be as much of a deciding factor in pump-shopping for diabetics, though, as it may turn out to be. Really they aren't that bad, and they should focus on the pump, the features, and what it offers, not how they're inserted if you can help it.
As far as benefits go, it's probably just your standard advantage: gets the infusion set in! Although they can be inserted by hand, which is quite helpful :)
Steel needles never crimp. I've been pumping for 13.5 years, always using an infusion set with a steel needle, and I've never had to deal with a crimped cannula.
Yeah, I've used the Minimed Sure-T, which is a newer set that has an actual permanent needle and it doesn't feel that different from a cannula set. I was having troubles with kinked infusion sets using Quik-Sets and sometimes Silhouettes so I switched for a while. With thin/lean people this is nice because you can insure that the cannula wont get kinked even if you hit your muscle or another tissue since you have a such a thin fat layer.
I think the perk of avoiding the "no delivery" alarm due to kinks in the tubing is the key point. I'm not sure why else you would want it.
Are you referring to the manual insertion sites versus the ones you insert with a spring loaded tool? If so, the advantage to them is that you can control the angle they go in at, and thus aim the cannula to the fatty layer rather than letting it hit the muscle (which happens to me with the spring loaded insertion cannulas). It's really just an issue if you are lean in the area your placing your cannula