Group - Intravenous therapy

Intravenous therapy or IV therapy is the giving of liquid substances directly into a vein. It can be intermittent or continuous; continuous administration is called an intravenous drip. The word intravenous simply means "within a vein", but is most commonly used to refer to IV therapy. Therapies administered intravenously are often called specialty pharmaceuticals. Compared with other routes of administration, the intravenous route is the fastest ways to deliver fluids and medications throughout the body. Some medications, as well as blood transfusions and lethal injections, can only be given intravenously. The simplest form of intravenous access is a syringe with an attached hypodermic needle. The needle is inserted through the skin into a vein, and the contents of the syringe are injected through the needle into the bloodstream. This is most easily done with an arm vein, especially one of the metacarpal veins. Often it is necessary to use a tourniquet first to make the vein bulge; once the needle is in place, it is common to draw back slightly on the syringe to aspirate blood, thus verifying that the needle is really in a vein; then the tourniquet is removed before injecting.