Talk:Air embolism

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thanks Alex!Erich 06:00, 11 Jul 2004 (UTC)

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[edit] edit

Air emboli as a complication of medical procedures is actually fairly common, it is rare that it causes symptoms however. Arterial embolism seems to usualy be a paradoxical embolous resulting from increased right sided pressure and a patent foramen ovale, so I added that in. I also added a bit about neurosurgery and central lines. Osmodiar 08:02, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)

[edit] needs a little work?

I came here looking for how an embolism causes death precisely; that information should probably be in the lead but instead it is burried in the second paragraph. Thoughts? BFD1 12:15, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

I took the liberty. I think both paragraphs still stand alone, but maybe someone will correct me. BFD1 14:34, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] think about it...

The statement that it doesn't cause instant death needs reviewing. It depends on what you mean with 'instant'. If a large enough air bubble is injected into a vein it can physically hault the blood flow when arriving at thinner vessels, and thus cause a heart attack. Its simple physics: a compressible volume (air bubble) injected into an incompressible flowing system (blood). Death will follow maybe not instantaneously but very quickly. I added an extra link for additional reference.

201.26.118.167 19:05, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Physics?...

If the pressure in veins above the heart (i.e. head and neck) is lower than atmospheric, why do we bleed when hurt in those areas? Am I missing something here? Ronen.

[edit] Death

How does an air bubble cause death? And is it painful? 72.82.17.62

Here's an interesting page on it; Death by air injection. Apparently it just causes increased breathing because your body interprets it as a breathing problem; making the sufferer take on gasping breaths, like you're drowning. It however takes, according to that page, around 200cc's of air in the circulatory system to kill someone. That may, however, be able to build up over time. Nagelfar (talk) 07:48, 5 March 2008 (UTC)