Vaccine Storage |
March 20, 2024
| Medi-Products
Best Guide To Botox Refrigeration
Botulinum toxin is known by several brand names, the most popular of which is Botox. It is a favorite in aesthetic medicine for the treatment of several conditions, including:
- Smoothing out facial wrinkles and lines (temporarily)
- Curing hyperhidrosis, a condition in which the affected person sweats excessively
- Cervical dystonia, a disorder that presents with severe contractions in the neck and shoulder muscles of affected people
- Chronic migraines
- Overactive bladders
One question that people commonly ask about Botox is, “Does Botox need refrigeration?” This article answers that question and a few other questions that cause anxiety for cosmetic health practitioners and their patients.
Does Botox Need Refrigeration?
Keeping Botox as safe to administer as possible requires that you store the drug within a specific temperature range. According to the manufacturers of Botox, Allergan, Botox vials should be stored in refrigerators at temperatures between 2oC and 8oC.
Getting this range constantly requires using a dedicated medical refrigerator as regular household refrigerators do not cut it. Medical refrigerators are equipped with state-of-the-art thermometers that are powered by smart technology. The thermometers measure the temperature inside the refrigerator and that of the products stored inside.
This way, they can detect a variation in the set temperature of either the refrigerator or the stored products. If they sense a variation - whether a fall or rise above the required range - an alarm sounds that draws attention to the variation. Thus, you can intervene and ensure that your Botox does not suffer temperature-related damages.
Don't let power outages spoil your botox inventory! Contact us today about the perfect backup solution for your whole facility!
Knowing the Proper Way to Store Botox is Vital
While it is essential to ensure that the drug is stored at optimal temperature ranges, it is also crucial to store the drugs properly. Medical refrigerators are equipped to store these products at specific temperature ranges. However, the following storage tips will help you keep your products in usable conditions for much longer (up to four weeks):
- Leave a 1cm space between the Botox boxes when you put them in the refrigerator
- Ensure that the boxes do not touch the sides or back of the fridge, as this can result in freezing.
- Ensure that your medical refrigerator is no more than 75% filled per time.
- Keep Botox vials in their packaging to prevent them from getting damaged by light, especially if your refrigerator has a glass door.
- Ensure that there is daily monitoring and logging of the refrigerator's temperature so that you will know if the temperature fell outside of the required range at any point.
Does Unreconstituted Botox Need to be Refrigerated?
Allergan recommends that unopened Botox vials be refrigerated between 2oC and 8oC for up to 36 months (if it’s the 100U vial) and up to 24 months (if it’s the 200U vial).
However, the company also announced that the drug remains stable even after five days at room temperature. This means that you do not have to be concerned about your Botox drug losing its potency or causing nasty side effects in patients if you had left it out of refrigeration for less than five days.
But what if the drug is exposed to extreme conditions during shipping? Does it remain stable?
Researchers studied by L. Parraga et al. also asked these questions and carried out a study on them. They referenced available product information and engaged the manufacturers in discussions. Their research showed that the Botulinum toxin remains stable at 25oC for 14 days and 30oC for seven days.
This is undeniably great news for cosmetic health practitioners who do not have to worry about disposing of their products because it was not immediately refrigerated, or for some reason, their refrigerator stopped working on a long weekend. The product will be as effective as refrigerated ones, and your bottom line will remain unaffected.
How Long Can Botox Be Out of the Refrigerator?
Allergan confirmed that Botox could safely be out of the refrigerator for five days at room temperature. The good news does not end there, however. Besides remaining stable for much longer than expected and at more extreme temperatures, studies have also shown that you can use the reconstituted Botox for much longer than the packaging recommends. So if there are scheduling challenges, you can still use your reconstituted Botox safely for days or even weeks after you reconstituted it. The effectiveness remains the same, and the effect lasts for the same time as freshly reconstituted Botox.
After comparing the effectiveness of freshly reconstituted Botox solutions with those that were two hours, six days, one week, and four weeks old, respectively, researchers found that the results were statistically similar.
They injected volunteers with fresh and aged solutions in the extensor dithorium brevis muscles of their feet. Results showed that the two-hour old solution produced the same effects as the four-week-old solution. What's more? The solutions maintained their intended effects for just as long.
Other studies showed that Botox solutions that were up to 43 days old remained effective. Moreover, the results were similar when the solution was administered into glabellar lines, and the results were compared with freshly-prepared solutions. This shows that you can keep your solution for that length of time and not worry about adverse effects.
A caveat, though: to achieve the same kinds of results as these researches, you need to keep the reconstituted solutions refrigerated at +4oC. A dedicated medical refrigerator will help you to accomplish this easily. To get even better results with refrigerating your Botox solutions, you need to ensure a stable and uninterrupted power supply for your refrigerator.
Don't let power outages spoil your botox inventory! Contact us today about the perfect backup solution for your whole facility!
A Solution for Botox Refrigeration: Backup Power
Our Medi-Products refrigerator battery backup systems are just what you need to ensure that your Botox solutions remain refrigerated at constant temperatures. With unpredictable power outages that threaten the cold storage needs of medical facilities, it becomes more imperative that medical refrigerators have an emergency backup power supply.
Our units are custom-built so that your battery backup for medical equipment needs can be met, and they are easy to install with no need for maintenance. Please reach out to us today to find out how our battery backup systems can best serve you.
