A novel use of a pen cap as a glass ampoule opener

Muhammed Mukhtar; Sofia Mukhtar

doi:10.25259/CSDM_225_2025

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Innovations

2026

:6;

13

doi:

10.25259/CSDM_225_2025

A novel use of a pen cap as a glass ampoule opener

Muhammed Mukhtar^1,, Sofia Mukhtar²

1Department of Dermatology, Mukhtar Skin Centre, Katihar, Bihar, India.

2Department of Pedodontics, Career Post Graduate Institute of Dental Sciences, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.

*Corresponding author: Muhammed Mukhtar Department of Dermatology, Mukhtar Skin Centre, Katihar, Bihar, India. drmmukhtar20@gmail.com

Received: 2025-12-06, Accepted: 2026-01-07, Published: 2026-02-06

Licence

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, transform, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.

How to cite this article: Mukhtar M, Mukhtar S. A novel use of a pen cap as a glass ampoule opener. CosmoDerma. 2026;6:13. doi: 10.25259/CSDM_225_2025

PROBLEM

Glass ampoules contain several injectable medications, including local anesthetic agents, normal saline, vitamin D3, and placental extracts, which are used in medicine, surgery, dermatology, and dentistry for intramuscular, intralesional, and mesotherapy purposes. However, shattering the ampoule with your finger is a dangerous activity, and using a metallic opener may result in the mixing of mini to micro glass spicules with the drug. A few atraumatic ampoule breakers and syringe tubes are not widely accessible in the clinic.^[1,2] We utilized a pen cap to solve the problem of not having an ampoule opener.

SOLUTION

The cap of a plastic pen is used after making aseptic with povidone-iodine or chemically sterilizing with glutaraldehyde solution, which is easily accessible in the clinic. The plastic, non-metallic pen cap is shock-absorbing. The ampoule head is inserted into the cap until it reaches the neck, the weakest section of the ampoule [Figure 1a]. The ampoule’s neck is then manually broken without the issue of glass spicules because the loose plastic pen cap is shock absorbent, and it is able to apply pressure over a more constricted part of the ampoule neck [Figure 1b and Video 1]. As a result, the pen cap may be reused to open ampoules.

Video 1:

Video 1:An ampoule is being opened, and the ampoule head is removed from the cap. Video available on: https://doi.org/10.25259/CSDM_225_2025

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(a) The ampoule head is inserted into the plastic pen cap till its neck, (b) the ampoule is opened with the help of the pen cap.

Ethical approval:

Institutional Review Board approval is not required.

Declaration of patient consent:

Patient’s consent is not required as there are no patients in this study.

Conflicts of interest:

There are no conflicts of interest.

Use of artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technology for manuscript preparation:

The authors confirm that there was no use of artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technology for assisting in the writing or editing of the manuscript and no images were manipulated using AI.

Financial support and sponsorship: Nil.

References

Mukhtar M, Mukhtar S. A novel use of glass vial as a safe ampoule opener. J Cutan Aesthet Surg. 2025;18:344-5.
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Zhang W, Gu L, Zhang Y, Lu H. Syringe tube as ampoule opener: A safe, simple, and effective tool in dermatologic surgery. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2022;86:e101-2.
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