What happens when excessive Intravenous fluid(IV) gets into the body.

almost 2 years ago

In every country, the health sector is a thing that should not be taken for granted at all, the health of citizens should come first, but because of the high level of greed and wickedness we have in my country, the leaders usually fly themselves and members of their family out of the country to treat even very little ailments, they do not care about what happens to the citizens, so the money meant for the building and development of hospitals, is used to boost the net worth of one politician.

I am not here to tell you about how bad the situation of things in my country has gotten, but it has gotten very bad. Anyways, I had to mention that, because last weekend I saw a woman who was rushed to an under-established hospital and she was treated by a nurse who gave her excessive Intravenous fluid(IV), what we popularly call Drip over here. According to the story I heard, she started to put on excessive weight and there had to be a health examination on what the problem really was.

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Let me tell you a brief story about how some of these Nurses begin to operate, they do not go to school probably because they can't afford it, so they go to a doctor who trains them on all they need to know to become a supposed professional nurse before the nurse becomes an expert in the field, she begins to handle highly professional cases for the doctor in his absence, putting the lives of innocent patients at risk.

The fact that the system does not have any definite procedure in place to check this act from local hospitals, makes it easy for them to even operate more. While this is so annoying, it is a fact we need to deal with here. The patients who patronize these low-budget hospitals also do so because they cannot afford the ones that are expensive.

Intravenous fluid is commonly used for the treatment of ailments and while it has worked very well over the years when it is administered excessively, it also produces a wrong result and that is why there is a regulation for intravenous fluid.
Intravenous fluid regulation is a technique put in place to control the amount of fluid received intravenously, or through the bloodstream, but before we go into details on what intravenous fluid regulation entails, let's talk a bit about the intravenous fluid and all about it.

Intravenous fluid is passed to the patient from a bag connected to the intravenous line, and the intravenous line is a thin tube commonly called an IV inserted into one of the patient's veins. The fluid is not just randomly administered through the vein for no reason, it is administered through the vein in order to help control the rate of fluid that gets into the body, if this is not controlled, the amount of fluid would rely on only gravity and this would lead to receiving either too much or too little fluid.

The flow of IV is regulated either through an electrical pump or manually, regardless of the method of regulation, the medical team must constantly check the inflow and delivery of the fluid into the body in order to ascertain the correct dosage.
Not every treatment is done by intravenously administering fluid into the body, but certain treatment options depend on IV for delivery into the human body, some of the treatments are;

If you are being treated for an infection with antibiotics.
Treatment for cancer with the use of chemotherapy drugs.
Pain management with the use of some type of medication.
Getting rehydrated after being dehydrated from excessive activity or illness.

The quantity and rate of intravenous fluid given to patients are highly dependent on body size, medical condition, and age. The role of regulation is to ensure there is the correct amount of fluids is passed down from the bad through the IV into the vein of the patient at an adequately correct rate.

I mentioned briefly earlier that, intravenous fluid is regulated in two basic ways; have the use of an electric pump and manual use, let me explain in detail these processes;

Manual regulation: With this procedure, the nurses or doctors will make use of a clamp to decrease or increase the pressure placed on an intravenous tube, this is either to speed up or slow down the rate of flow of the fluid, they could possibly count the amount of drops given per minute in order to ensure the flow rate is accurate and adjustment is made as required.
Electric pump: With this technique, the nurse or doctor modulates IV flow with the help of an electric pump to deliver desired fluid amount through the IV into the body at the correct rate.

What happens when excess fluid gets into the body?

Excessive fluid getting into the body creates a medical condition known as Hypervolemia. Another name for Hypervolemia is fluid overload, even if we know that the body needs fluid to remain healthy, excessive fluid in the body will result in a dangerous imbalance in the body.

Hypervolemia actually happens a lot with an underlying health issue, mild cases of hypervolemia can happen with eating food with excessive sodium or when there is a hormonal change in the body, but mild cases of hypervolemia usually get resolved on their own, if there is no health problem to make issues worse. Even cases of hypervolemia that are discovered on time can be treated, but the underlying cause of the issue needs to be treated to avoid constant re-occurrence.

Those with congestive heart failure, kidney failure, liver cirrhosis, and medications that cause hormonal changes, will trigger a more severe case of hypervolemia. Common symptoms of hypervolemia are;

Swelling in the arms and legs.
Unexplainable and drastic weight gain.
Breath shortage caused by the presence of fluids in the lungs.
Abdominal swelling, is common in those with liver problems.
Change in skin color.
Headaches.
Redness or pain at the sight of entry.
Treating hypervolemia is not difficult, but that is if there is no underlying medical issue. One of the common treatment options is Diuretics, diuretics are medications that increase the amount of urine produced by the body. A person with heart failure would have to work on steps to manage their heart condition in addition to taking diuretics. When you begin to experience swelling excessively, unexplainable weight gain, and water retention without any basic reason, then you will need to see a medical professional instantly, especially if there is a family history of heart, kidney, and liver problems.

Conclusion.

Mild water retention is not always serious amongst people who do not have other health issues and can be treated easily, but when there is an underlying health issue like; kidney, liver, or heart disease, treating the underlying condition is a serious case. Following through on the doctor's advice on diet, medications and other treatments put in place will bring a healthier result.