For most intravenous injections, great care is taken to...

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Key Concepts

Fluid Balance and Cellular Integrity

Ensuring that IV injections are isotonic helps preserve cellular integrity and overall fluid balance. When the concentration of the injected solution closely matches that of the plasma, cells remain in their normal state, maintaining proper function and preventing damage that could arise from abnormal fluid shifts, which can disrupt physiological processes.

Osmotic Pressure

Osmotic pressure refers to the force exerted by solutes in a solution that draws water across a semipermeable membrane. In the context of intravenous injections, it is important that the administered solution has an osmotic pressure similar to that of blood plasma so that water neither rushes into nor out of cells, which could cause cell swelling or shrinking.

Isotonic Solutions

An isotonic solution has the same solute concentration (and therefore osmotic pressure) as the body’s plasma. Using isotonic IV solutions helps maintain the proper balance of fluids in the bloodstream and tissues, preventing potential complications such as hemolysis, where cells might burst due to an influx of water, or crenation, where cells shrink due to water loss.

Transcript

0:00 Hi everyone.

00:01 Thanks for joining me, ms.

00:02 Holstrom, for this brief discussion of iv solutions, and how come it's important for them to be at a decent, correct, workable concentration.

00:15 Let's talk for a minute about osmosis.

00:18 Your cells have semi -permeable membranes.

00:22 Blood cells have semi -permeable membranes.

00:25 What does that mean? take a look at these two diagrams.

00:30 On the first diagram, if i have a dilute solution, this is a dilute solution with one solute particle and these little black ones that i'm putting dots right are water molecules.

00:46 Here i have a more concentrated solution.

00:51 I have four salt particles and four water molecules.

00:55 Now keep in mind that this is the model and this is nowhere close to reality, but you're going to get the idea.

01:01 In osmosis, a semi -permeable membrane will allow the solvent, in this case water, to pass through, but it will not allow the solute particles to pass through.

01:15 They're too large.

01:17 So take a look what happens from here to here.

01:23 I have the same concentration, but look at how the level on this side has risen.

01:32 Osmosis allowed the water molecules to pass through and add volume until we came to equilibrium...

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