Where does the air go in a vein when hooked to iv tubing?

Question

I haave given and recieved tons of iv's. the air that goes into the tubing and into the vein is minimal but where does the air go after that? is it reabsorbed by the body or do you forever have air circulating in yur veins?

Answer 1

It is absorbed or exhaled.

A bubble in your air stream can be a problem because it it gets lodged it can block blood flow and so starve part of your body.  However you are carrying air in your bloodstream anyway.  If it is in a vein then it will pass through the lungs and so be exhaled before it becomes a problem.

According to Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intravenous...

"Embolism

A blood clot or other solid mass, or an air bubble, can be delivered into the circulation through an IV and end up blocking a vessel; this is called embolism. Peripheral IVs have a low risk of embolism, since large solid masses cannot travel through a narrow catheter, and it is nearly impossible to inject air through a peripheral IV at a dangerous rate. The risk is greater with a central IV.

Air bubbles of less than 30 milliliters generally dissolve into the circulation harmlessly. A larger amount of air, if delivered all at once, can cause life-threatening damage to pulmonary circulation, or, if extremely large (3-8 milliliters per kilogram of body weight), can stop the heart.

One reason veins are preferred over arteries for intravascular administration is because the flow will pass through the lungs before passing through the body. Air bubbles can leave the blood through the lungs. A patient with a heart defect causing a right-to-left shunt is vulnerable to embolism from smaller amounts of air.

Fatality by air embolism is vanishingly rare, in part because it is also difficult to diagnose. Always take out all the air before you start the infusion."

Answer 2

There is no way any air goes into your blood. The reason that doctors tip the needle upside down and flick it and squirt some out before an injection is to get all the air out. It will likely kill you if you get air in your blood. When you are giving blood, air does not go into your arm, it goes into the collection bag. "The bends" is what happens to SCUBA divers when they come up to quickly and the nitrogen in the blood comes out of solution and forms bubbles. It will clog the viens and arteries and if it gets into your heart can stop it or even reverse the flow (rare but it has happened.) Obviously both of these will kill you.