From: sbharris@ix.netcom.com (Steven B. Harris )
Subject: Re: Explain intravenous injection in laymans terms, please.
Date: 05 Oct 1995
Newsgroups: sci.med

In <44vgc3$bqo@newsbf02.news.aol.com> undurtoe@aol.com (UndurToe)
writes:

>      I am doing research for a short story.  I need to know in as basic a
>terms as is possible what is entailed in an injection. What vein or veins
>are used as the entry point. How is the chemical absorbed into the body?
>What organs or vessels might come into direct contact with the injected
>solution as well as how does the body assimilate it.
>      If it matters the injected substance would be an LSD like chemical,
>though the actual nature of the chemical will be subject to artistic
>contrivance.  Any help on this subject is appreciated.


  Intravenous infection (IV injection for short) is injection of fluid
directly into a vein.  Veins are the "pipes" that stand out on your arm
and hand when you put a band around the upper arm.  They carry blood
back to the right atrium, through the right heart, then the lungs, and
eventually to the left heart and throughout the body.  They can be
found on legs also.  There are some big veins also in the neck.  Any
can be used for injection, although for self injection the limbs are
about the only option.

   When you inject a chemical into a vein, it goes through the
circulation until in contact with all body tissues in the blood.  This
happens within a minute.  What happens next depends on the chemical.
Many are metabolized and cleaned out by liver, and/or excreted by the
kidneys.  What the chemical in the blood does in the tissues in the
meantime, and how it works, is as varied as the chemical.  IV injection
gets a chemical in contact with all essentially all organs, since blood
flows through all living tissue.

   Some chemicals are fairly injurious or irritating to veins on
contact, and they do some damage to the vein on site of injection of
there isn't a very fast flow (the antibiotic erythromycin, for
instance).  These have to be given into a big vein (usually a neck
vein) if given for long.

    IV injection always leaves a needle mark, but it doesn't have to be
a big one, and it heals in a few days (think of the last time you gave
blood-- that was a much bigger needle than needed for putting drugs
IN).  The scars and tracks you see on addicts are due to infections and
impure chemicals, and do not occur with careful long term injections of
medical pure sterile drugs, including heroin.

                                         Steve Harris, M.D.