Why is this dangerous? I’ve always heard that medical professionals must always be cautious as to air getting into their syringes. I also think I saw an old movie once where a guy killed another guy by injecting into his arm a syringe full of nothing but air. Is this really such a bad thing? Does the body actually have no defense against this? (although, in retrospect, why would it?)
I think it goes a little like this, a large amount of air is quickly passed through the body until it reaches the brain and causes a painful and lethal anneurism. Little air bubbles don’t do anything though, you can see them all the time in IV tubes.
Air bubbles in the blood will kill you. This is also why deep water divers must surface slowly to avid rapid decompression and the formation of air bubbles in the blood.
Your innards are designed to recieve blood. Mabye the air bubbles iturrupt the flow of oxygen that your blood provides, hence causing irreversible cellular damage.
I dunno if i’m correct or left out something in the last paragraph.
I’m not to sure how dangerous this actually is . Ok I can see how a large bubble might cause a heart attack or a stroke but how big of a bubble ?
Heroin addicts are probably not that anal about bubbles or have their judgement impaired but I don’t recall many stories about any dying because of this.
** All of the above is all very much IMO and I would like to know if I’m on track or way off . **
Hmm… I don’t think that’s it because cells don’t start to die the second the stop recieving oxygen. It takes a matter of minutes. That would have to be one large bubble. Can a bubble fully block blood flow? I don’t know.
Is there a Doctor in the house???
isn’t contact with air what causes blood to coagulate?
We do have several rescue and nurse people in this forum so eventually one will come along and fix this up. So I’m going to tell you what I think. Putting medication in the sub-cutaneous tissue or into a muscle like putting more of something into an already full space. Putting air in with the medications probably increases the chances the medication and air will just seep back out. So the habit to discharge the air in a syringe is an automatic action on the nurse’s or doctor’s part - so much so that it would carry over to the use of syringes and IV lines for iv feeding or hydration.
So the amount of air in the tubing probably isn’t harmful, pointless, but not dangerous. Might be different for babies and the elderly, if that is so then the better habit is to remove the air, baby, elderly or not.
If someone is shooting up iv drugs they might just remove excess air because that was the way they saw it done on TV and in the movies.
One way that a bubble can kill you is entering one of your atriums (atriae?). Whenever you have something like a spray bottle or other pump, the pump has to be primed becuase they are not designed for expandable or compressible fluids such as air. The same is true for your heart, and this is one way that a bubble can be lethal.
Well, like others I’m hoping that one of the medical professionals of various types that hang around the board will post some official information. BUT, I recently asked my vet about this ‘air bubble’ thing when we were administering fluids to a sick dog.
According to him, it takes a damned big air bubble to cause a problem, at least in animals. The idea is that a large enough air bubble will cause the heart to lose its ‘suction’ and be unable to pump blood - just like any other pump can ‘suck air’ and has to be primed again before it can resume pumping. (As threemae said.) I don’t know if this is accurate as far as humans are concerned, but he said that it is just about impossible to do with animals. When he was in vet school, the students were actually told to inject a syringe full of air into an IV placed in a living animal in order to reassure the students that they would not accidentally kill a patient in this manner. He said that some students injected absolutely huge amounts of air into several dogs without hurting them at all. He did say that, possibly, injecting a large amount of air directly into the heart could have this result.
IIRC, this is called an ‘air embolism’ - an embolism being anything that blocks or stops the flow of blood.
When you see a vet holding up a syringe and tapping it to remove the air bubbles, it is not because the bubbles are dangerous. It is to ensure that the correct amount of medication is being given. If you are trying to inject 10 mLs of medication, and there is a 1/2 mL air bubble in the syringe, you’ve just screwed up. Again, I don’t know about humans - smaller amounts of air may be dangerous for humans, or they may have some anatomical quirk that makes this more dangerous.
Silo, I believe the problem with divers is not ‘air bubbles’ in general. Hopefully there are some deep-water divers on this list that can explain this properly, but my understanding is that when you dive below a certain depth and remain there for a little while, the nitrogen in your bloodstream separates from whatever blood component it is attached to. If you return to the surface gradually, this nitrogen is reabsorbed and doesn’t cause a problem. But, if you re-surface too rapidly, the nitrogen cannot be reabsorbed and forms small bubbles in your blood vessels. The bubbles settle in constricted areas such as the joints and cause intense pain. I’m not sure what the cause of death is in these cases, although I understand that the pressure changes can cause delicate blood vessels to rupture. Perhaps there is brain damage of some sort?
<B>Diver:</B>
Yes its the bends. Very close coosa and Silo. Not quite however.
Basic divers are only supposed to go to 60 feet. Advanced divers are allowed to go to 100 ft with the recreational limit of 130 ft. These are based on no decompression limits. Allowing you to go straight up to the surface at any time. Along the way for safety you generally are supposed to take some ‘safety stops’ at 15 ft or so. In general these are to allow you to keep the nitrogen from reaching dealy levels in your blood. You can’t just dive all day long. That would kill you. Thats why you’re supposd to use decompression tables or ‘the wheel’.
Coosa is right, the nitrogen starts to come back out in the form of gas into you blood stream. Causing among other things lack of oxygen to the brain. It centralizes in joints and in the neck area. It also causes itching. I’m not sure why on that, but it really does begin a strange very itchy sensation on the skin.
Basically when these bubbles expand they break the vessels. Brain included. You better have a decompression chamber near by or you’re toast.
Another fun topic is nitrogen narcosis… thats funny stuff…
<B>Sailor: </B> Blood needs several ingredients to coagulate. Ever notice how a very clean cut bleeds for what seems like forever? Its because part of the chemicals needed for coagulation come from damaged tissue cells. If all the ingredients for coagulation were in the blood at all times we would seize up before would could be born. The platelets are a major component however, the other chemicals come from damaged tissue and other sources.
Thats about all I know. I could consult my dive books, but they’re not around. I might also ask my dad when I see him. I’ll write an update.
Cya!
Thanks, Thought! I knew I had the general idea because of divers in my family and with having worked with some, but the exact details, etc. had slipped through the cottage cheese I use for a brain. Sounds like you have personal experience with ‘the bends’ also - is this pretty common with deep-water divers?
We worked with some deep-water divers in the Gulf of Mexico once, and they brought along a decompression chamber that sat on our back deck (utility boat). I wasn’t sure if this was just a case of safety overkill (common in the oil fields) or if there really was that much of a risk. They didn’t have to use it, thank goodness!
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor.
The condition of air bubbles blocking the flow of blood in blood vessels is called air embolism, as has been mentioned above. Not that the specific condition for divers seems to be called aeroembolism, air bends (a.k.a. the bends), or just decompression sickness.
The following excerpt is from a WebMD article relating to traveling below sea level:
From the same site, on embolic strokes:
I am under the impression that the rareness of air embolism is simply because normal people tend not to inject large air into their own veins. I don’t think it is because a big air bubble in your veins is unlikely to cause damage. As a side note, I was unable to find any reference to how air bubbles may cause the heart to lose its ability to pump blood. From a mechanical standpoint, I also have doubts on how this can exactly work (again, not a doctor here). It’s nice to hear that the dogs survived though. You sure they didn’t have a funny look on their face after that ordeal?
The book Final Exit by Derek Humphry discusses the ethics of euthanasia and methods. On death by injection of air:
Hmmmm… It seems as if we’re coming to the conclusion that air bubbles don’t cause that much damage…?
Air that is injected into a vein will travel as a bubble inside that vein until it reaches the heart and/or the arteries leading out of the heart. There are then three possibilities:
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The air may be simply be reabsorbed (this will happen for small amounts of air, eg. the tiny bubbles you may see in a syringe or IV line)
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The air bubble may block the flow of blood out of the heart (and prevent blood from entering the lungs). This can either i) effectively stop the circulation of blood or ii) at least impair the blood’s ability to get oxygen. Either way, you may be finished.
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If there is a hole in your heart (and mild holes are very common, maybe 10 or 15% of the population) the air bubble may cross over to the so-called systemic circulation (i.e. not the lungs) and be pumped out to the brain. This will lead to a stroke.
I don’t know precisely, but IIRC one needs a fairly large amount (say > 5 cc or more) of air for #2 above to happen. The last scenario can occur with smaller amounts.
I hope this helps.
KarlG
This isn’t very relevant as to the actual question, but I saw this in what I recall was an episode of MacGuyver, where a person was told he had poison in his system, and was given an ‘antidote’, which, it was revealed to him after he injected himself, was actually soda water, and the ‘bad guy’ explained to him how he was about to die…
I was only in my early teens, when I saw this, so I don’t remember much of any of it past that…
Wow! Thanks for the compliment 
beems
No personal experience, however my dad pushed the limits on his tables once, and his neck started swelling up, we were very worried about him.
As long as people follow the rules, no one should get hurt. I’m not really sure if theres that much of a risk as long as you follow all the rules of the recreational diver. I would feel a whole lot better if there were one on the boat when I was diving however.
tschuss
I know of somebody being killed by air, I think last summer, when a frat hazing prank was to put an airhose in the pledge’s ass.
Although, now that I write it, I don’t know if the problem was air in the blood or an “internal hernia” which is dangerous just like a ruptured appendix, creating masive infection in unreachable areas.
But, anyway, if you care, it might be lookupable in the news sites. Probably search under Hazing.
Ugh. {rest of rant about barbarian ‘hazing’ practices snipped}
So we know about the bends and high-pressure effects. Are there corresponding effects in the body as pressure decreases from normal atmospheric pressure? I mean, before one runs out of air and oxygen entirely?
Rigardu, kaj vi ekvidos.