Infusion - what is it and what is it prescribed for?

Some people who have consulted doctors a couple of times in their life have some initial medical knowledge. Of course, the less you face the need for attention on the part of doctors, the better - therefore, health is in order. However, some idea of the most common procedures still have to be: who knows at what point they can come in handy.

Let's start with a simple

Ordinary people use more simple terms than "infusion" and "injection." Instead of the last word, a more usual "injection" appears in everyday life. With this procedure, faced, perhaps, everything - at least once in life, at least at the dentist. Its meaning: the rapid introduction into the body of a drug in a strictly defined amount. No less important are injections, when a person can not take the medicine himself - either as a result of fainting, either as a result of vomiting, or as a consequence of the fact that the drug can not be taken by swallowing (for example, destroyed by an aggressive environment of the stomach). There are several kinds of injections. Such as subcutaneous and intramuscular, even a person without special education can do. Some (in particular, diabetics) even prick themselves a medicine themselves. The main thing is that the skin is disinfected, and the syringe is sterile. Of course, intra-articular, intravenous and intraosseous injections can only be delivered by a health worker.

A more complicated procedure

We will now deal with the concept of "infusion". That this word is synonymous with the familiar term "dropper", already fewer people know. The meaning of the procedure in the slow, but continuous receipt of the prescribed drug in the patient's blood. The needle (catheter) is inserted into either a vein or an artery. In another way, infusion can not be performed. It's clear to everyone that this is a complex process that requires skilled skills and is fraught with deadly consequences. So at home, "on the knee", you can not put a dropper, it is necessary to observe the medical staff.

What are the goals of the doctors prescribing the infusion

With a fairly extensive list of diseases the patient needs infusion. What are these cases? First of all, a lot of blood loss. It can not be reconstructed without a dropper. The next option is to feed the body, which itself can not temporarily take food (for example, after operations on the intestine and stomach, with a long absence of food, when the gastrointestinal tract has "forgotten" to work, with the general weakness of the body). It is extremely necessary intravenous infusion in the treatment of cancer: drugs should be given a certain time in a given concentration in the blood. Single injections here are indispensable. In the same way, the missing components of blood (red blood cells and platelets) are delivered.

Types of procedure

In principle, there are two of them, if you focus on how infusion is done. What are these kinds? Ink and drip. The jet infusion is done when the right medicine is in a small amount, or it needs to be injected into the body very quickly. Drip, on the contrary, suggests a low but constant rate and a large amount of the drug (or blood or plasma). Its distinctive advantage is that the internal pressure on the walls of veins and arteries practically does not change, that is, the infusion is done in a softer, more gentle mode. The drawback with this can be considered a very long time, which will have to be carried out under a dropper.

Modern devices, through which an intravenous infusion is performed, are equipped with a special safety valve that covers the dropper when the solution runs out. However, some hospitals still use old systems where there is no such valve. In this case, the medical staff or relatives of the patient have to monitor the level of the solution, so that an air bubble does not get into the vein.