Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel Bomb Here. When you walk into
Speaker 1: a doctor's office to get a shot, as sometimes it's
Speaker 1: a surprise. Most of the time you can count on
Speaker 1: getting an injection in your arm, but occasionally they'll pitch
Speaker 1: you a curveball and injected into your rear end or
Speaker 1: even your belly. So why is this? It generally has
Speaker 1: to do with the type of medicine being injected, the
Speaker 1: volume of the dose, and how quickly or slowly the
Speaker 1: medicine needs to be absorbed into the body. So today
Speaker 1: let's talk about the four basic types of medical injections.
Speaker 1: And if you don't like hearing about needles, but you've
Speaker 1: made it this far, now might be a good time
Speaker 1: to stop or skip to the next episode. Okay, okay.
Speaker 1: The first category we're talking about is intravenous injections. These
Speaker 1: go directly into the vein and deliver medicine really quickly.
Speaker 1: They're normally delivered in the back of the hand or
Speaker 1: the front of the elbow. Next up, intramuscular shots. These
Speaker 1: are injected directly into a muscle where the medicine is
Speaker 1: absorbed a little more slowly by blood vessels. The most
Speaker 1: common locations for these are the deltoid muscle of the
Speaker 1: shoulder that's the meaty bit above the bicep, and the
Speaker 1: gluteous medius of the bum, which is the meaty bit
Speaker 1: at the upper outer quadrant of each buttock. In young
Speaker 1: children who may not have developed these muscles yet, the
Speaker 1: thigh muscle might be used instead. Then we've got subcutaneous injections.
Speaker 1: These are given into fatty tissue where there's less blood
Speaker 1: supply and therefore the medicine is taken up by the
Speaker 1: body more slowly. These are generally injected into the abdominal fold.
Speaker 1: And finally, there are intradermal injections. These target the middle
Speaker 1: layer of the skin and are absorbed the most slowly
Speaker 1: of all. Common injection sites for these include the inner
Speaker 1: surface of the forearm and the upper back under the
Speaker 1: shoulder blade for the article of this episode is based
Speaker 1: on how stuff Work. Spoke with Libby Richards, a faculty
Speaker 1: associate at the Perdue University School of Nursing. She explained
Speaker 1: the injection site is driven by how the medication is absorbed.
Speaker 1: Some medications, like insulin, need to be absorbed slowly, so
Speaker 1: fatty tissue without much blood flow works better. Medications injected
Speaker 1: into the muscles are absorbed faster than fatty tissues, but
Speaker 1: slower than intravenous. For example, it's coming for antibiotics and
Speaker 1: diuretics to be administered intravenous LYE, whereas many vaccines, hormone shots,
Speaker 1: and allergy medications are injected intramuscular LYE. Vaccines are often
Speaker 1: injected into muscles because muscles contain more immune cells than
Speaker 1: other injection sites. These immune cells will immediately recognize the
Speaker 1: stuff that makes the vaccine work, uh the weakened or
Speaker 1: non operational or otherwise non infectious bits of virus material
Speaker 1: that the vaccine contains, so those cells will quickly start
Speaker 1: to prepare your body to fight the real thing should
Speaker 1: it invade. In addition to the type of medicine, doctors
Speaker 1: and nurses need to think about how much medicine needs
Speaker 1: to be injected and whether a specific muscle is large
Speaker 1: enough to hold that much medication. Richard said, a muscle
Speaker 1: tissue can generally hold more volume than fatty or subcutaneous tissue,
Speaker 1: so that's another consideration when choosing an injection site. When
Speaker 1: the volume of medication is a consideration. A larger muscles
Speaker 1: such as the buttocks or thigh may be used instead
Speaker 1: of the arm. Plus some medications can cause irritation to
Speaker 1: delicate blood vessels. In this case, muscle is preferred as well.
Speaker 1: And even with all of these considerations, you can still
Speaker 1: ask your doctor if they can give you an injection
Speaker 1: in your preferred location, Richard said, Sometimes it comes down
Speaker 1: to patient preference and convenience. The arm is often easier
Speaker 1: to access and preferred by patients. M Today's episode is
Speaker 1: based on the article why are some shots given on
Speaker 1: the arm and some in the bum? On how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com written by Jocelyn Shields. Brain Stuff is
Speaker 1: production of by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot Com and it's produced by Tyler Clang. Four
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