The specially formulated infusion fluids are injected into the vein to treat dehydration. The IV infusion therapy is used by people of all ages, either dehydrated, sick, injured, or undergoing surgery. This is a simple and safe method of maintaining body fluids with the least complications.
How Do IV Fluids Help Dehydration?
To relieve the symptoms of severe or moderate dehydration, IV therapies are recognized as the best dehydration treatments. In this process of IV rehydration, vitamins, nutrients, and fluids are injected into the bloodstream. Depending upon your symptoms and severity of the dehydration in your body, the type of fluid and its amount may vary during the rehydration process. Moreover, the choice of the fluid to be injected into your bloodstream is also determined by your pre-existing medical conditions and age. IV fluids injected through the therapy stay in your body until all the contents have been metabolized.
What Causes Dehydration?
Dehydration occurs when you take less than the required fluid by drinking very little water throughout the day. Your body uses water lost while sweating, breathing, urinating, and through tears and saliva. If you don’t consume enough water required by your body, your body will soon become deficient in fluid and nutrients. You can recover the lost water and nutrients only through water and a proper diet containing surplus water that may hydrate your body and replenish its fluids.
Sometimes, you face even severe dehydration when suffering from conditions like
- While experiencing excessive sweating
- Having fever or diarrhea
- in case of vomiting within the 24 hours
- Urinating more than usual.
Sometimes you lose your body water and fluids because you don’t realize that you are dehydrated, like when you are busy, not feeling thirsty, or having a sore throat that prevents you from consuming water.
Common Dehydration Side Effects
Exsiccosis, also known as dehydration, is a condition marked by a drop in water level in the body, which results in hypertonic and hypernatremic symptoms. It occurs when fluid in your body is not enough for all your body organs’ normal and proper functioning.
You must have been interested in realizing that the body is facing dehydrated conditions. Easing your problem, this blog post covers the symptoms of dehydration in children and adults.
Symptoms of dehydration in children:
Any children showing the following symptoms suffer from dehydration:
- Sunken cheeks and eyes
- Irritability
- Dryness in mouth and tongue
- Crying with no tears in eyes
Symptoms of Mild dehydration in adults:
If any adult shows the following symptoms, he might be suffering from moderate dehydration:
- Thirst
- Headache
- Sticky mouth
- Dry skin
- Less urination
- Dark-colored urine
- Fatigue
- Muscle cramps
Severe dehydration in adults:
If any adult shows the following symptoms, he might be suffering from severe dehydration:
- Dizziness
- Rapid breathing
- Fast heartbeat
- Dark-colored urine or no urine at all.
- Very dry skin
- Lack of energy
- Fatigue
- Sleepiness
- Sunken eyes
- Irritability
Severe dehydration must be treated instantly and be considered a medical emergency. This is where IV therapy can help you rehydrate your body fluids and alleviate the symptoms of dehydration by administering the essential vitamins, nutrients, and antioxidants into your bloodstream.
Read more: A better understanding of IV Therapy
Benefits of IV Fluids
You might have been thinking about the components of the IV hydration fluid. It is a saline solution that contains water, electrolytes, and sodium chloride. It functions to restore your body’s natural fluids and replenish the hydration fluid. The fluid injected into the bloodstream passes through the digestive system and rehydrates the body faster.
Once your body gets dehydrated, you may feel many positive changes that include:
- Enhanced clarity and mental concentration
- Clearer skin
- Improved cardiovascular health
- Cushioning of your joints and muscles
These perks become especially important if you have recently recovered from some severe medical condition or are experiencing cold symptoms. Because, in these circumstances, your body would be more deficient in nutrients, and you may face severe dehydration symptoms, IV infusion therapy can help you recover fast.
Rehydrate With IV Therapy using IV Fluid
To optimize your rehydration, cellular repair, and recovery, it is highly suggested to undergo IV therapy to treat the symptoms of nausea, fatigue, hangover, muscle repair, migraines, weight management, and much more. You can select the IV package that best fits your medical condition to get a personalized IV infusion to treat your problem better.
After assessing the symptoms of the medical problem you are facing, the medicine practitioner infuses the IV fluids in your body; some practitioners even use a topical numbing spray to make the procedure as painless as it can be.
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Types of IV fluids
Intravenous fluids are mostly administered to patients brought to the hospital due to severe dehydration. Many intravenous therapy fluids are used as maintenance fluids and IV boluses. The types of fluids to be injected depend upon the patient’s condition.
1. Crystalloid solutions
Crystalloid solutions are the most commonly infused IV fluids containing small molecules that can easily diffuse from the bloodstream into the tissues and cells. Examples of crystalloid solutions include saline, the solution of salt in water, and Dextrose, which is sugar in water. Another example is lactated Ringer’s solution, which contains chloride, potassium, sodium, calcium, and lactate. Lactated Ringer’s are used for aggressive fluid replacement.
2. Colloids
Colloids are large molecules that stay in the blood vessels and can not pass through the cell membrane. Examples of colloids include hetastarch and albumin.
Maintenance Fluids vs. IV Bolus
Maintenance Fluids:
Maintenance fluids are the IV fluids that run slowly to overcome the expected fluid loss and decrease the PO intake. People who cannot take fluids by mouth are recommended IV maintenance fluids to minimize the ongoing fluid loss with many medical conditions.
- People suffering from fever require maintenance fluids due to water losses caused by increased metabolism and sweating.
- The people suffering from diarrhea and vomiting also need increased fluids to overcome the water losses.
- The same is for people who face significant drainage.
- Patients with pancreatitis and burns also require large volumes of fluid.
- People with dehydration, acute renal failure, and mild hyponatremia require maintenance fluid for maintaining renal function and sodium levels.
IV Bolus:
IV boluses are the fluids administered in extreme medical illness to patients in ER or ICU with unstable blood pressure. IV boluses help them support hypotension and maintain blood pressure.
- The patients initially brought to ER are suggested to take almost a liter of IV bolus. In contrast, people with extreme dehydration, migraine, sepsis, shock, and abdominal pain are suggested to take 1-3 liters of IV fluid.
- For smooth bolus flow, it is suggested to hang the bolus and wide open the clamp. The patient should keep their arms straight while getting the fluid administered into their bloodstream.
Indications for Intravenous Fluids
In addition to being used for hydrating a dehydrated person, IV fluids are commonly used in healthcare institutions for people suffering from diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, bleeding, headache, acute kidney injury, and maintaining blood pressure for people suffering from sepsis and hypotension.
Moreover, the people who cannot maintain the required daily uptake of liquid use intravenous fluids as maintenance fluids throughout the day.
Read more: IV Therapy FAQs
Pros & Cons of IV Fluids for Dehydration in Dubai
Pros
Medical practitioners extensively use IV fluid therapies to treat many medical conditions as this is an efficient way to replace the replenished fluid.
- Due to the rapid performance of IV fluids, they are considered best for someone struggling with a deficiency of electrolytes in the body fluids.
- These fluids provide exactly what the body needs for managing dehydration.
- The different formulations of fluids for different ailments help provide the patient with customized solutions for addressing the fluid imbalance, fluid deficit, and electrolyte composition by targeting the root cause.
Cons
Despite the amazing benefits of IV fluid therapy, it comes with certain drawbacks.
- Intravenous fluid therapy is usually an inpatient procedure. Hence you might be required to pass through a lot of paperwork, and you might be required to stay in the pediatric care center or the hospital for long.
- Moreover, you won’t get discharged unless your nurse or doctor permits you.
- In addition, rehydration through IV infusion might be painful, especially for people who have a phobia with needles. You might face a hard time if you are afraid of needles and injections because the needle stays in your arm throughout the process, which results in discomfort.
- The vein may collapse in case of a needle injected into it for an extended period when the patient suffers from extreme dehydration. Vein collapse happens when long-term and repeated treatment is required. This condition is common among children. However, it is not life-threatening. The nurse needs to re-inject the IV fluid in some other vein as an alternative.
- Moreover, more movement during the IV infusion therapy may dislodge the needle in the vein and cause infiltration. This happens when the needle moves and causes the fluid to move outside the vein, which results in a stinging sensation and causes bruising. To improve such conditions, the nurse or doctor needs to reinsert the vein perfectly at a place in the vein.
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