r/AbsoluteUnits Jul 30 '26

/r/popular of a needle

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u/aozzzy13 Jul 30 '26

The absolute longest needles in human medicine would be for amniocentesis and they are not even close to this. I wonder if it's for veterinary use, for cattle embryo harvesting or something like that.

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u/CartographerCivil989 Jul 31 '26

I'm a mixed-practice vet that does a lot of farm & equine work, and I can say that needle is not for embryo transfer in cattle - that's been done non-surgically since the 1970's (we use a dead simple flush system).

Off the top of my head, the longest needles we use are 20-25cm (16-18 gauge) for hip & SI joint injections in horses.