Injected air into muscle

**WelshWarrior** · 12-07-2006, 04:01 AM

I've made a mistake and put about 0.3ml of air into my pec during a shot about 30 minutes ago. It is more sore than usual and has a very hard lump there (which I presume is the air bubble).

A search on this reveals plenty about veins, but not about IM.

Will it be okay?

**shrpskn** · 12-07-2006, 04:32 AM

You'll be fine...

Now and then .1cc or so of air might sneak by on an injection for me...making sure to clear all my gear from the syringe & pin.
Never harms me, you'll be fine.

-ShrpSkn

**Kale** · 12-07-2006, 04:56 AM

Dude it actually takes 20, yes 20 cc's of air to actually kill you. You may fart a bit more than normal though so be ready for that :-)

**WelshWarrior** · 12-07-2006, 06:32 AM

Thanks, fellas. Figured I'd survive, but was after some reassurance.

Pfffrrrt!

**AnabolicBoy1981** · 12-07-2006, 09:07 AM

r u sure its 20? i heard it was 1 full cc.

**IGOTJUICE007** · 12-07-2006, 09:34 AM

Originally Posted by AnabolicBoy1981

r u sure its 20? i heard it was 1 full cc.

I believe it 1 full cc for intravenous

**manwithin** · 12-07-2006, 11:05 AM

Originally Posted by IGOTJUICE007

I believe it 1 full cc for intravenous

not it's a lot more then 1cc even intravenously.

**manwithin** · 12-07-2006, 11:07 AM

Originally Posted by manwithin

not it's a lot more then 1cc even intravenously.

Air bubbles of less than 30 milliliters generally dissolve into the circulation harmlessly. A larger amount of air, if delivered all at once, can cause life-threatening damage to pulmonary circulation, or, if extremely large (3-8 milliliters per kilogram of body weight), can stop the heart.

**Kale** · 12-07-2006, 11:11 AM

SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION
DEATH BY AIR INJECTION

Dr. Anil Aggrawal

Technically known as cases of "air embolism". The word embolism comes from Greek en, "in," and ballein, "to throw or cast". Henceforth we will be using the term "air embolism".

Before telling anything further about death by air embolism, let us first understand a little bit about the way our blood circulates in our body. This is very essential to understand how a person is killed by injection of air. Our heart is comprised of 4 chambers. There are two chambers on the right and two on the left side. The chambers on the right side are known as right atrium and right ventricle, while the chambers on the left side are known as left atrium and left ventricle. Bad blood (deoxygenated) from legs, head, arms and in fact from every part of the body returns to the upper right chamber called the right atrium.

With each contraction of the heart the right atrium sends this bad blood to the right ventricle. The right ventricle, in turn, sends this blood to the lungs via pulmonary arteries. Do not let the complicated names baffle you. Just remember that atrium and ventricles are fancy sounding names of some chambers of the heart. Ventricle is a larger chamber than atrium. Also keep in mind that "artery" is the name of a conduit which takes the blood away from the heart while vein is the name of a conduit which brings blood to the heart. The word pulmonary comes from Latin pulmo, "the lung". Thus "pulmonary artery" refers to a conduit which takes the blood away from the heart towards the lung.

In the lung, the bad blood is purified (oxygenated). This is done by the help of the air which we breathe all the time. The pure blood is returned to the heart via pulmonary veins. The blood comes in the third chamber of the heart known as left atrium. Left atrium sends this blood to the left ventricle, which in turn, pumps this pure blood to the whole body via a very big conduit known as the aorta. The body organs use this pure blood, and when this blood becomes impure, it is once again returned to the right atrium. And thus the circulation goes on.
Now we are ready to understand how air embolism works. First of all we must appreciate that nature has made this whole system of circulation air-proof. This means that there is no way, air could enter this system of conduits and pipes. If somehow air could enter the system (such as by injection of plain air through a syringe), the air will form an "air lock" within the system. This "air lock" is quite familiar to plumbers and owners of diesel engines, where the normal flow of liquid through tubes is wholly or partially blocked by air. Quite in the same manner this air lock blocks the flow of blood through the arteries and veins, thus bringing the circulation to a halt. Let us make this a little more clear.

Air could be made to enter the circulation either through the arteries or through the veins. When an injection of air is given, the air bubbles start travelling towards the right atrium. From right atrium they keep travelling onwards till they come to the lung. Here the capillaries are too narrow to allow the big bubbles to pass. The result is that these bubbles get entangled in the blood vessels of the lung. The whole blood traffic stops and the person dies very quickly. In fact this bad blood can not be purified by the lungs, because the traffic of blood towards the lungs has been stopped. The body can not imagine that such a sinister thing has happened. It "thinks" that the blood is not getting purified because of lack of air. So it quickens the respiration. The person starts gasping. But nothing helps because the cause lies somewhere else and the person dies.

Now this is where discrepancies lie…in how much is needed. This article cited 200 mL (cc’s), which I think is an exaggeration. Other articles I have come across state wide ranges…anything from 20 mL to the above mentioned 200. I say about 20 mL, as an educated guess…and I read that in some nursing journal during schooling as well. 20 mL is approximately the length of an IV line…so those who’ve been in hospital can now envision how much is needed.