Drip chamber pressure effect effect in fluid administration

[murli_trilok]

Hi ..

I am referring to a a typical IV set administratin of fluids. I am seeing reference in the literature mentioning that bottle height is from the fluid release level to the drip chamber in which you can see some air gap between two level of liquid(call it lower and upper!). According to my understanding, there is liquid in the bottle held above the drip chamber and the height of the liquid in the bottle adds to the atmospheric pressure and acts at the level upper level in the drip chamber. The air in the drip chamber balnaces this which is how the upper liquid level gets defined. The air pressure acting to hold the bottle liquid in the drip chamber will also act on the lower liquid leel in the drip chamber. Therefore the the liquid level in the bottle should also be added to the liquid level in drip chamber to arrive at the effective bottle height at liquid release level.

The literature does not seem to factor the the liquid height in the bottle ? Actual bottle height is what?

Thanks and regards,

 

[gtoguy97]

The actual bottle height is the total distance from the bottom of the drip chamber to the top of the bottle where the liquid release level is. This is because the pressure of the liquid in the bottle is pushing down on the liquid in the drip chamber, and that pressure is dependent on the height of the liquid in the bottle. Therefore, the actual bottle height includes both the height of the liquid in the bottle and the height of the drip chamber.