Explain why water is not administered intravenouslt to patients?!
Question: Like someone else said, what they put in you is saline, a salt solution, not water. They don't directly use water due to osmosis (the diffusion of water over a concentration gradient). Water would diffuse into cells, causing the cells to lysis, or basically explode. The salt helps maintain a concentration gradient. That and the salts also help maintain electrolytes.
Answers: Like someone else said, what they put in you is saline, a salt solution, not water. They don't directly use water due to osmosis (the diffusion of water over a concentration gradient). Water would diffuse into cells, causing the cells to lysis, or basically explode. The salt helps maintain a concentration gradient. That and the salts also help maintain electrolytes.
Huh? Every time I see anyone in the hospital the first thing they do is hook you up to intravenous saline. That's water, my friend. My dad says it's so they can give you drugs through the connection. It's also what the human body is usually short of no matter who you are when you come in the hospital.
I'm in U.S. Maybe much different elsewhere.
edit: my bad. I meant "mostly water." If the question was why not water instead of saline then the other answers are better.
For the same reason that whole blood doesn't come out of our kitchen faucets.
saline is NOT water. its salt and water concentration. if you added plain water to a body you'd have BIG problems
Because plain water would upset the salinity level of the blood.
even though our bodies have "water" in them, it technically isnt "water". it is a salty solution and what they administer in an iv form is almost exactly what our bodies have in them. good question.