This question has been puzzling me fore days...The question is....
When a patient has blood cleansed by hemodialysis, the blood is circulated through dialysis tubing submerged in a bath that contains the following solutes in water: 0.6% NaCl, 0.04% KCl, 0.2% NaHCO3, and 0.72% glucose (all percentages are weight/volume). Suggest one or more reasons why the dialysis tubing is not submerged in pure water.
I know that these substances obviously clean the blood better than just pure water, but i'm not sure HOW... this is a chemistry problem, not really a bio problem, but please only answer if you're sure.... this is a question for bonus points and i could really use them! Thank you!
2007-03-04 15:06:13 · 2 answers · asked by Sarah 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Chemistry
The solution is used to match closely that of the bloodstream itself. If you used pure water, the process of diffusion would force water into the tubing in an attempt to dilute the solutes in the blood down to the level of the water, or to equal out the concentrations on both sides. Without the proper concentration of these solutes in blood, sorry, but your patient is dead.
Similar logic is used as to why you don't drink salt water. The concentration of solutes being higher in the water than it is in the body, water will actually be pulled out of the body to dilute the salt water down to the body's level of salt. In other words, drinking salt water can actually dehydrate you.
2007-03-04 15:13:14 · answer #1 · answered by TheOnlyBeldin 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
There are lots of dialysis patients that can help answer this question at http://www.ihatedialysis.com - go to the forum and post a question - it's a really great group of people with experience and knowledge to share!
2007-03-05 03:47:08 · answer #2 · answered by okarol 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋