Why does a bubble in a bloodstream cause your body to go haywire?

Question

Why does a bubble in a bloodstream cause your body to go haywire?

In: 78

Answer 1

Put air in an oil line and see what the pump does… Same concept.

It can create a situation where the blood no longer flows correctly. No blood, no oxygen (or nutrients/energy/cleaning).

The problem? Squeezing gas along is a hell of a lot more work than liquid. Squeeze a liquid it forces itself along is doesn’t compress in actual volume much at all, gas/air however does.

Now as long as the gas is fully pushed by the liquid it works fine (see big vessels), but if it gets to a point where compression is doing the majority of the driving work, or where the liquid has another path and the bubble fills a path this creates a problem especially in smaller, higher resistance paths.

You may have heard of bleeding a pump – that is the process to remove air.

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The route of the problem though – gases compress in volume you may as well consider that liquids don’t.

Answer 2

Put air in an oil line and see what the pump does… Same concept.

It can create a situation where the blood no longer flows correctly. No blood, no oxygen (or nutrients/energy/cleaning).

The problem? Squeezing gas along is a hell of a lot more work than liquid. Squeeze a liquid it forces itself along is doesn’t compress in actual volume much at all, gas/air however does.

Now as long as the gas is fully pushed by the liquid it works fine (see big vessels), but if it gets to a point where compression is doing the majority of the driving work, or where the liquid has another path and the bubble fills a path this creates a problem especially in smaller, higher resistance paths.

You may have heard of bleeding a pump – that is the process to remove air.

—

The route of the problem though – gases compress in volume you may as well consider that liquids don’t.