Attribute Schema Library
Attribute schemamedical & dental supply

Syringes & Needles Attributes

Syringes and needles are among the highest-line-count consumables in a medical or dental distributor catalog. Buyers are hospital and clinic materials managers, GPO contract teams, dental and veterinary practices, pharmacies, and DME suppliers. They order by gauge, length, and barrel volume, usually by the box against a standing contract.

The data is hard for three reasons. The category is specified in two measurement systems at once: a US catalog lists 21G x 1-1/2", ISO 7864 designates the same needle 0.8 mm x 38 mm, and suppliers send both. Specs arrive concatenated — "21G x 1-1/2 3cc LL" is four attributes in one string. And connector names are brand names: Luer-Lok, Tru-Lok and luer lock are one ISO 80369-7 geometry that filter rails routinely split into three.

Then variants multiply. Gauge x length x capacity x tip x safety mechanism x wall class yields thousands of near-identical SKUs, each with its own GTIN and its own UDI device identifier — and the spec separating two of them often exists only on the carton artwork or in the IFU PDF.

Core

Every SKU needs these. Without them the record is not a product, it is a row.

Product Type / Application
enum
Safety hypodermic syringe with needle

Separates a bare needle from a syringe/needle combo, an insulin syringe, or a dental needle. Every downstream filter and billing code hangs off it.

Needle Gauge
number · G (Gauge)
21

The first thing a buyer filters on. Sets bore, flow and patient comfort. Distributor rails run 18G to 31G in US medical and dental.

Needle Length
number · in
1-1/2

Decides whether the injection lands intradermal, subcutaneous or intramuscular. Dental buyers order extra-short/short/long, not inches.

Needle Outer Diameter
number · mm
0.8

ISO 7864 designates single-use needles by metric OD (0.18-1.2 mm), not gauge. Without it, EU datasheets and US records never reconcile.

Syringe Capacity (Nominal)
number · mL
3

Dose picks the barrel; viscosity and site pick the needle. Rails run 0.3 mL to 60 mL, and 1 mL alone covers insulin, TB and allergy.

Tip / Connector Type
enum
Luer lock (ISO 80369-7)

Decides what the syringe mates with. Luer lock, luer slip, eccentric, catheter tip and fixed needle are not interchangeable at the bedside.

Sterility & Sterilization Method
enum
Sterile, ethylene oxide

Sterile single-use vs non-sterile is a hard clinical gate, and EO vs gamma matters to buyers with residual or material concerns.

Manufacturer Part Number
identifier
305122 (BD PrecisionGlide 25G x 5/8")

The number the buyer reorders on, and the key that joins your record to the manufacturer datasheet, IFU and 510(k) file.

GTIN-14 (UDI-DI)
identifier
14-digit GTIN, one per packaging level

For class II devices the GS1 GTIN doubles as the UDI device identifier in GUDID. Assigned per packaging level, so each/box/case differ.

Packaging Configuration / UOM
text
100/box, 10 boxes/case (1,000/cs)

Needles sell as each, box and case with different GTINs. The buyer ordering "one" means a box of 100; the picker means one needle.

Differentiating

What buyers actually compare on. This is where catalogs win or lose the filter.

Safety Mechanism Type
enum
Hinged shield

OSHA-covered employers must use sharps with engineered protection. Hinged, sliding sleeve and retractable are different trained techniques.

Bevel Type
enum
Regular bevel (tri-bevel)

Regular bevel penetrates skin. Short bevel is specified for regional blocks and intradermal work. Non-coring is a separate object entirely.

Cannula Wall Class
enum
Thin wall

A 21G thin wall carries the flow of a 20G at the same outer diameter. Buyers drawing viscous drugs order on this field, not on gauge.

Graduation Increment
number · mL
0.1

The scale the clinician actually reads. A 1 mL barrel at 0.01 mL is a tuberculin; the same barrel in insulin units is a U-100.

Hub Colour Code
enum
Green (21G, ISO 6009)

Clinicians order by colour off the carton. Store the standard too — ISO 6009 hypodermic colours and the dental convention disagree.

Compliance & identifiers

Standards, regulatory data, and the identifiers channels reject you for missing.

Natural Rubber Latex Statement
enum
Not made with natural rubber latex

Required on healthcare item masters and GDSN records. FDA advises against "latex free"; the compliant phrasing is what buyers screen on.

Rx / OTC Status
enum
Rx only

21 CFR 801.109 devices carry "Rx only". Gates which channel may list the SKU and who can buy it without a prescription.

Country of Origin
enum
Thailand (non-TAA designated)

VA, DoD and GSA buyers screen on TAA and BAA. Distributor rails already expose origin because it decides contract eligibility, not just customs.

The fields that aren't in the schema at all

What most syringes & needles catalogs are missing.

The table above is the schema most catalogs already have. These are the attributes that usually aren't in it — each one surfaced by a signal from the live market rather than by an audit of what's already there. This is what Anglera's Schema Foundry does on a real catalog, in this category.

Supplier signal
+ Cannula Wall Class (thin vs regular wall)

BD publishes thin wall as a distinct line in 18, 19, 21, 22 and 23 G. Most distributor records carry gauge only, so a 21G thin wall and a 21G regular wall render as the same PDP.

Buyer sourcing for a viscous draw gets regular wall, flow is wrong, the box comes back. Thin-wall RFQs cannot be answered from the item master at all.

Search signal
+ Bevel Type / Bevel Length

Buyers search "short bevel needle" for regional blocks and intradermal work. Most catalogs have no bevel field — the word sits in free-text description, so the search returns nothing.

Zero-result search on a clinical requirement. Worse, a regular bevel ships into a nerve block tray and the tray gets rejected on receipt.

Supplier signal
+ Syringe Dead Space / Residual Volume

Low dead space is a named SKU line, and ISO 7886-1 caps residual volume by barrel size. Residual volume appears on almost no distributor record — not even as a boolean.

Pharmacy and vaccine buyers sourcing extra-dose or low-dead-space SKUs cannot filter for them, so they buy from the catalog that lets them.

Marketplace signal
+ HCPCS Code

DME, pharmacy and home-care buyers order against A4206-A4209 and A4215. Item masters carry UNSPSC and GTIN; the reimbursement code is usually absent entirely.

The DME and pharmacy channel cannot map the SKU to reimbursement, so the order routes to a competitor whose listing shows the code.

Competitor signal
+ Hub Colour Code (and colour standard)

Hub colour is printed on every carton and clinicians order by it. Catalogs list gauge but not colour, and never state whether the colour follows ISO 6009 or the dental convention.

"Yellow needle" returns nothing. And 27G yellow (dental) vs 30G yellow (ISO 6009) resolves to the wrong item on a phone order.

How Schema Foundry finds these

Messy in, governed out.

The same value, spelled every way medical & dental supply suppliers spell it. A filter only works once they agree.

Needle Length
1-1/2"1.5 in1 1/2 inch38mm38 mm1-1/2 IN.
38 mm (1-1/2 in)

US suppliers ship fractional inches, ISO 7864 sources ship millimetres. Ungoverned, the length facet splits one SKU pool in two.

Needle Gauge
21G21 Ga21 gaugeG210.8mm21g x 1 1/2
21

Gauge is a US convention; ISO 7864 designates by metric OD. "x 1 1/2" inside the gauge field silently welds two attributes together.

Tip / Connector Type
Luer-LokLuer LockLLLocking LuerTru-Lokluer-lock tip
Luer lock

Luer-Lok and Tru-Lok are brand names for the same ISO 80369-7 male luer lock. Left raw they become three separate facet values.

Natural Rubber Latex Statement
Latex FreeLatex-freeLFNo LatexNRL FreeNon-latex
Not made with natural rubber latex

FDA advises against "latex free" claims. The governed phrase is what healthcare item masters and GDSN records actually require.

What buyers ask

Every one of these should be answerable from the attributes above. If it isn't, that's a gap.

  • Is this thin wall or regular wall? I need 20G flow at 21G for a viscous draw.
  • My EU datasheet says 0.8 mm x 38 mm — is that the same as your 21G x 1-1/2?
  • Does the safety shield activate passively, or does the nurse flip it with a thumb?
  • Is the needle fixed to the barrel or detachable? I fill with one and inject with another.
  • Short bevel or regular bevel? This is going onto a regional block tray.
  • Does this bill under A4208, or do I bill the needle separately as A4215?
  • Is the 1 mL graduated in 0.01 mL ticks or in insulin units?
  • Is it Rx only, and can my pharmacy sell it over the counter in this state?

What channels require

The same SKU, different mandatory fields per destination.

Distributor's own catalog filter rail
Product Type / ApplicationNeedle GaugeNeedle LengthSyringe Capacity (Nominal)Tip / Connector TypeSafety Mechanism Type
FDA GUDID (UDI submission)
GTIN-14 (UDI-DI)FDA product code (FMI needle, FMF piston syringe)Device size: needle gauge and total volumeSterility & Sterilization MethodSingle-use flagRx / OTC Status
GS1 GDSN healthcare data pool (1WorldSync, GHX)
GTIN-14 per packaging levelBrand nameNet content and UOMPackaging hierarchyGPC brick / UNSPSCCountry of Origin
Amazon Business Professional Healthcare (gated)
GTINFDA establishment registration510(k) clearance or exemption basisRx / OTC StatusProduct Type / Application

Syringes & Needles data, in practice

Should we store gauge or millimetres?

Both, in separate fields. Gauge is the ordering convention in US medical and dental — buyers filter 18G to 31G and nothing else. ISO 7864 designates single-use hypodermic needles by metric outer diameter, 0.18 mm to 1.2 mm, and that is what arrives on EU and ISO-aligned datasheets. They map cleanly (18G = 1.2 mm, 21G = 0.8 mm, 23G = 0.6 mm, 25G = 0.5 mm, 27G = 0.4 mm, 30G = 0.3 mm), so carry gauge as the governed enum behind the filter rail and OD in mm as a number for spec matching and supplier reconciliation. Deriving one from the other at query time is fine. Storing only one is not.

Do syringes and needles need a UDI, and is it the same number as the GTIN?

Sterile single-use hypodermic needles and piston syringes are class II devices (FDA product codes FMI and FMF) and carry a UDI. Where the labeler uses GS1 as its issuing agency, the GTIN is the device identifier portion of the UDI — one number doing two jobs. The DI goes to GUDID, which stores this category's dimensions as labelled device-size pairs such as "Needle Gauge: 21 Gauge" and "Total Volume: 3 Milliliter". Because GTINs are assigned per packaging level, the each, the box and the case are distinct DIs. A record holding one GTIN for a SKU sold three ways is already wrong.

Why does cannula wall thickness need its own field?

Because gauge alone does not predict flow. A thin-wall needle has the same outer diameter as a regular-wall needle of the same gauge but a larger inner diameter — a 21G thin wall carries roughly the bore of a 20G, moving the volume of a needle one gauge larger through the same size hole. That is the whole reason it exists: viscous drugs and faster draws without stepping up in OD. BD offers thin wall in 18, 19, 21, 22 and 23 G. If the record only says "21G", the two products are indistinguishable on the PDP, the rail cannot separate them, and buyers who care will assume regular wall and order elsewhere.

Should safety and non-safety versions share a product record?

No. Sharps with engineered sharps injury protection are a distinct regulatory object — OSHA's bloodborne pathogens standard requires covered employers to evaluate and implement them, and the mechanism type (hinged shield, sliding sleeve, retractable) decides whether a clinic will accept the device at all, because it changes the technique staff were trained on. Treat Safety Mechanism Type as a governed enum with an explicit "Non-safety" value rather than letting safety live as an adjective in the title. It is a filter, and having "Non-safety" as a real value is what lets buyers who need conventional needles find them.

More medical & dental supply schemas

Dental HandpiecesDiagnostic EquipmentExam GlovesSurgical InstrumentsWound Care

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