was in ER lots of times due to variou stuff (gallstones, excessive gas, GERD) and got an IV everytime
mom always got anxious when IV was about to end
2-3 times I was alone in ER and nurses were busy (car crash victims etc were brought in) so IVs got empty with plenty of air bubbles
only thing happened to me was in 1 of those my blood got up to the IV after 10 minutes or so but nothing else happened
why air bubbles in IVs are not an emergency or looked after instantly? When called on a empty IV (not dripping anymore) nurses act cool and cut the drip valve as if everything is normal
In: 73
It takes a lot of air to cause an air embolisms and more often than not it’s from a traumatic injury where a large blood vessel is cut and sucks air in. We are talking jugular vein or femoral vein big. The little bubbles you see in the IV line are entire metabolized by the blood before they reach anywhere they can do any trouble. The paramedic didactum says that you need at least 60ml of air rapidly pushed into a vein before you even have to start worrying about any issues. For reference that’s about twice the volume of the tubing used in most IVs.
Latest Answers