How many air bubbles required to endanger patient?

Specialties Infusion

Updated:   Published

Hello everyone,

In school or in public, we always learn that air bubbles in blood vessels will kill a person. But I have also heard someone said "it takes a full IV tube of air bubbles to kill a patient". So air bubbles in IV tubes are not to worry about, especially when you're infusing by gravity.

I forgot who told me that and I can't verify that again anymore.

Do any of you guys know which is right?

Derek

Specializes in Vascular Access.

There are different research papers which review actual cases related to Air Embolism (AE).

The one I always remember is the elderly debilitated person who died from a 7cc AE. Now 7 cc is approx. 1/3 of many IV tubings as most tubings hold between 15 and 20 cc's.

For most people, however, it takes much greater amounts to cause a patient's death.

Thank you for your info

There are different research papers which review actual cases related to Air Embolism (AE).

The one I always remember is the elderly debilitated person who died from a 7cc AE. Now 7 cc is approx. 1/3 of many IV tubings as most tubings hold between 15 and 20 cc's.

For most people, however, it takes much greater amounts to cause a patient's death.

Thank you for your info =]

Derek

my experience as an echo tech... looking for ASD or VSD we would routinely agitate 5 cc of air with 5cc saline and inject several times with and without Valsalva. Sometimes we would push it 5 times. (5x 5= 25 cc of air) I did that over 5 years to so many patients. I never worry about air bubbles, it hurts the pumps more than the pts. I still prime all of my tubing and eliminate bubbles when necessary.

Specializes in Vascular Access.

True, When looking for septal defects, air bubble agitation is done, but I will disagree with your statement which says it doesn't hurt the patients. Any amount of air produces changes in the smooth intimal lining of the blood vessels, and several large bubbles can merge into one large one.

But I do agree with the need to prime ALL tubing and ext sets even caps before hooking up to the patients IV catheter.

I recommend reading "Death by Air: How Much is Too Much?" by Broadhurst. It's posted on the CVAA website for members online, but i'm sure you can find it elsewhere online. Great concrete information.

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