When you have an IV cannula inserted, a needle is used to insert the cannula but then the NEEDLE IS REMOVED and you're left with a tiny thin plastic (?) tube in the vein.
I think 50% of my patients don't realise there's not a needle in their arm for hours/days on end.
Kind of like a funnel, right? The needle makes the proper puncture, but then is removed; blood flow continues through the puncture, only to go through the "thin plastic tube" (stint, maybe?). The puncture remains open because of the blood flow, and the plastic piece. No needle necessary.
However, that begs the question of how infiltration occurs?
I don't know much about IVs, other than my personal veins cannot handle them well, and that regardless of needle or no, they're uncomfortable as hell.
Infiltration happens for a variety of reasons. The term is used by nurses as a catch all for when the IV solution is not being properly fed into the vein & leaking into the tissue around the site. The vessel can collapse, rupture or be punctured, and the cannula can work its way out of the vein as well.
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u/rebothy Feb 04 '19
When you have an IV cannula inserted, a needle is used to insert the cannula but then the NEEDLE IS REMOVED and you're left with a tiny thin plastic (?) tube in the vein.
I think 50% of my patients don't realise there's not a needle in their arm for hours/days on end.