What happens if air gets into a vein? This question quite often arises in those who were given the wrong injection. And this is no accident, because in many films and detective novels, this method is often used by ruthless killers in relation to their victims. And watching the negative hero take a large syringe, lift the plunger, pump air into the vein and the hostage dies, the viewer is involuntarily lingering in the memory of the viewer that such an injection is fatal.
What happens if air gets into a vein?
In medical practice, the process of penetration of air into an artery, as well as the subsequent blocking of the blood flow to the brain or heart, is called an air embolism. It is precisely this pathological condition that those who were accidentally injected with air into a vein are afraid of. It should be noted that this can indeed be a fatal situation, since a bubble entering a vein begins to gradually move along the artery, and then enters the system of the smallest vessels, which further narrow to the capillaries. In such a place, air quickly stops the flow of blood into any vital area of the body.
Heart attack or stroke?
So what happens if the air gets into a vein? According to doctors, from blocking the artery with air, the injured person can really die. In this case, we are talking about cardiac embolism, which causes a rather life-threatening aerial coronary tube or the so-called heart attack. Similarly, an embolism in the brain causes a stroke. However, it is worth noting that accidental ingress of air into a vein of 99% does not cause death. Why? You can find an exhaustive answer to this question just below.
Rules for injecting
What happens if air gets into a vein? This question arises in people not only because of films and detective novels, but also because nurses try to carefully squeeze out all the vials there from a syringe or dropper. Such caution of clinic workers involuntarily prompts the patient to the idea that if air is injected into a vein, something very terrible will certainly happen. However, it is not. Just such procedures are required for any type of injection. Firstly, if you do not remove all the bubbles, it will be quite problematic to administer the drug quickly and painlessly. Secondly, if air does get in, then in the first minutes the patient will really feel "local" discomfort, calling the injection "sick." But practice shows that such unpleasant symptoms disappear after a while.
It is for these reasons that nurses try to make intravenous, subcutaneous or intramuscular injections according to all the rules. After all, few people will like a “sick” injection, after which it reduces the arm, leg or other parts of the body.
A cube of air into a vein: deadly or not?
If you notice that during an injection small air bubbles got into your bloodstream, then you should not panic right away - there will definitely not be a fatal outcome in such a situation. Moreover, worrying about this makes sense only if exclusively intravenous injection was improperly done , since the air entering the muscle tissue or under the skin dissolves almost immediately in the cells, leaving no consequences after itself, unless short discomfort at the injection site.
As for intravenous injection, it all depends on the size of the bubble itself. If you let the air into the vein quite a bit, then it will immediately dissolve in the cells of the body, as in the case of an intramuscular or subcutaneous injection. That is why the accidental ingress of small bubbles into the body does not affect the patient’s health.
What dose of air at the injection is life threatening?
As mentioned above, during a normal injection, only a minimum of air bubbles can accidentally enter the body, which will not affect the well-being of a person. As for the possible lethal outcome, for this you need to try very hard. Indeed, according to experts, air embolism will occur only if at least 200 ml of vesicles are injected into a vein. Only in this case they will not be able to resolve properly, which may well cause a stroke or heart attack.
Where is it especially dangerous to introduce air?
We told you a little higher that getting air into the body during an intramuscular or subcutaneous injection does not threaten a person’s life. Moreover, if a syringe with air was injected into a vein, then this is also not fatal. And this has nothing to do with the number of bubbles. After all, a fatal outcome does not occur due to accidental ingress of air into any of the small veins. In this regard, it is advisable for the best-selling authors to write about the ruthless killing of victims using large syringes and injections into the main artery. After all, this is the only way for a patient to soon have a stroke or a heart attack.
What traces remain?
Returning to detective novels, it should be noted that quite often the presented method of murder is chosen on the basis that in the future forensic experts will not be able to identify the true cause of a person’s death. But this is the same myth as the death from one small “air” injection. The fact is that any specialist is able to almost immediately determine the recent injection, especially if it was made only by air. After all, after the death of a person, the injection site becomes very dark, and a bright halo appears around it. As for the usual incorrectly made injection, in this case, patients can further observe small bruises, as well as bumps or pustules. As a rule, hematomas at the injection site quickly resolve themselves. But if for some reason this did not happen, and the person begins to feel pain, his temperature rises, etc., then you should immediately consult a doctor, since it is likely that a serious infection got into the wound.
How to bleed air?
The rules for injecting are the same for everyone. That is why absolutely every medical worker must remove air from a medical device before injection. And how exactly this is done, we will consider a little further.
- From a syringe (for intramuscular, intravenous or subcutaneous injection). After taking the drug, the syringe rises vertically with the needle up, and then the nurse makes light clicks on his body, thereby knocking all the bubbles together (in one air pocket). Then, with a slight pressure on the piston, air is squeezed out. In this case, it is imperative to release some of the drug, along with which all the remaining bubbles will go away.
- From the droppers . Before putting the patient in the system, the medical staff do the same actions as with the syringe before the injection. By the way, if the liquid in the dropper runs out before the nurse removes the needle from the patient’s vein, then the air in any case will not enter the human body, as there is simply not enough pressure in the system for this.
- From complex medical devices . In such devices, where enough air can accumulate for death, there are special filters that automatically remove absolutely all available bubbles.
In what cases can an air embolism still occur?
Quite often, divers encounter such a pathological condition that threatens a person’s life. This happens in situations where a professional diver runs out of air at great depths, and he tries to quickly float to the surface, while holding his breath. In this case, the air in the lungs begins to expand due to a decrease in pressure. As a result of this phenomenon, a rapid and rather strong filling of the respiratory organs with bubbles occurs, which in the end can lead to instant rupture of small sacs called alveoli. After that, the air gradually enters all the blood vessels, which ultimately leads to air embolism, that is, a stroke or heart attack.
How to avoid?
What to do to shield yourself from such fatal accidents? In the situation of divers, all the rules for lifting to the surface of the water should be observed. As for medicine, here it is required to remove all air bubbles from syringes, droppers and other devices in advance.