Used far too much benzyl alcohol making bacteriostatic water - numbness/swelling around injection points. Potential for damage?

[ThyroidMan2020]

I was reconstituting botox and decided to use a 1 ml syringe to add 2.5 ml saline to the botox vial, then administer the botox using my 0.5 ml shorter needle syringes (way easier and more precise for delivery).

Anyways, as I normally use all the botox in one session I didn't have pre-made/filtered bac water, I normally just add in the 1% benzyl alcohol to the saline in the vial..... how most people do.

For botox injections benzyl alcohol contributes an anaesthetic component, making the injections virtual painless.

..........

Anyways, I got the "ticks" or marking on the 1 ml syringe confused with those on the 0.5 ml syringe, and basically added 8 "ticks" worth of alcohol, where it should have only been 2.5 (I normally round it off to 3);

i.e. 1 tick alcohol for every 100 ticks of saline.

So my solution basically had 3.5 % benzyl alcohol instead of 1%.

Doesn't sound like much but as the injections are done quickly, I could tell immediately after that something was off.
Way more swollen and increased irritation than normal.

Then the swelling and numbness persisted into the next day (no real irritation or redness though).
And day four, it's gradually improving but still present.

........

Conventional response may be, "no worries, it's all good".
Then I'm reading some literature on benzyl alcohol and some contend its use at all is questionable, can be toxic at high doses, powerful irritant, etc.

Almost certainly a difficult question to answer without extensive medical experience and knowledge, but any general thoughts?
Anyone made the same mistake, experienced similar symptoms but no long term issues?

Potential for damage from such an error?

 

[finroid]

3.5 times increase in the amount of benzyl alcohol doesn't seem to be that significant. The swelling is likely caused by increased amount of water being transferred to the injection site to dilute it while it is slowly being removed from the system. Maybe a few cells took some damage from getting too much alcohol in them, but cells come and go. Just don't kill too many at once and they will copy themselves.

I know for a fact that injecting pure alcohol to tissue will cause necrosis, but that would be over 40-fold what you injected.

 

[ThyroidMan2020]

3.5 times increase in the amount of benzyl alcohol doesn't seem to be that significant. The swelling is likely caused by increased amount of water being transferred to the injection site to dilute it while it is slowly being removed from the system. Maybe a few cells took some damage from getting too much alcohol in them, but cells come and go. Just don't kill too many at once and they will copy themselves.

I know for a fact that injecting pure alcohol to tissue will cause necrosis, but that would be over 40-fold what you injected.

Cheers. Well, one outcome seems to be the botox effect in this case was impacted such that it's almost absent.

1 week on and it's like I haven't even had botox at all. Though thankfully the swelling and numbness have reduced.

I figure the reduced effectiveness of the toxin may be due to the swelling somehow, perhaps fluid transmission weakening its effect.

Probably difficult to comment though it's almost possible the higher alcohol percentage actually neutralized or impacted the botox itself.

 

[ThyroidMan2020]

https://cdn.cytivalifesciences.com/api/public/content/digi-16184-pdf Benzyl alcohol, on the otherhand, does not denature proteins Not sure what to make of that.​

 

[laclark89]

I was reconstituting botox and decided to use a 1 ml syringe to add 2.5 ml saline to the botox vial, then administer the botox using my 0.5 ml shorter needle syringes (way easier and more precise for delivery).

Anyways, as I normally use all the botox in one session I didn't have pre-made/filtered bac water, I normally just add in the 1% benzyl alcohol to the saline in the vial..... how most people do.

For botox injections benzyl alcohol contributes an anaesthetic component, making the injections virtual painless.

..........

Anyways, I got the "ticks" or marking on the 1 ml syringe confused with those on the 0.5 ml syringe, and basically added 8 "ticks" worth of alcohol, where it should have only been 2.5 (I normally round it off to 3);

i.e. 1 tick alcohol for every 100 ticks of saline.

So my solution basically had 3.5 % benzyl alcohol instead of 1%.

Doesn't sound like much but as the injections are done quickly, I could tell immediately after that something was off.
Way more swollen and increased irritation than normal.

Then the swelling and numbness persisted into the next day (no real irritation or redness though).
And day four, it's gradually improving but still present.

........

Conventional response may be, "no worries, it's all good".
Then I'm reading some literature on benzyl alcohol and some contend its use at all is questionable, can be toxic at high doses, powerful irritant, etc.

Almost certainly a difficult question to answer without extensive medical experience and knowledge, but any general thoughts?
Anyone made the same mistake, experienced similar symptoms but no long term issues?

Potential for damage from such an error?

I dont know but too much rubbing alcahol on a wound ,It will damage cells and irritate superficial nerves.

What r trying to botox ur balls lol. Why not just buy some vials of it?

 

[narta]

I have used 5% Mexican Vet gear for years with no problem. It's not the BA

 

[awolf472]

I have used 5% Mexican Vet gear for years with no problem. It's not the BA

It was nice knowing ya throidman. Dibs on guns and ammo.

 

[Pinnacle Elements]

You did the Botox wrong. Congrats

You are aware that stuff is poison. I causes your muscle to be paralyzed. Do it wrong & you get those symptoms. That’s why when you can’t even measure BA correctly- you absolutely shouldn’t be administering Botox yourself