why isn't the syringe needle medicinal shot injected directly into the vein but in a random spot in our arm?

Question

everytime i go to the doctor and get shots(vaccines or vitamin B shots for example) in my arm, it hurts a lot.why isn't the needle injected in our vein like an IV, so it's less painless and the medicine is effective quicker?

doctors/nurse:please explain.

Answer 1

Injections are usually given into muscle or fat so that the drug will disperse slowly into the blood stream. If it was injected into a vein the undiluted drug would go straight to the heart and is likely to cause major problems.

Answer 2

There is nothing random about it. The shots you are getting are meant to be injected into the muscle. Some medications are dangerous if injected intravenously (such as local anesthetics), and some are simply less effective.

Drugs can be injected into muscle, veins (very rarely, arteries), under the skin or into the skin. Some, like some chemotherapy agents, have to be injected into big central veins in the chest. We also can inject drugs into the fluid around the spinal cord, or into the epidural space which surrounds the spinal cord.

Some drugs, like morphine, can go pretty much anywhere. Most others are specifically formulated to be administered in a particular way.

Answer 3

You are getting "IM" injections - intramuscular. The medicine has to be injected into the muscle to be effective in the instances you describe. Some shots are "IV" - in the vein, some "IM", and some are "SC" which means subcutaneous (under the skin) such as insulin shots. Sorry.

Answer 4

Medications like that cannot be injected directly into the vein because then you would get too big a dose, too quickly. When injected into the muscle, the medication can slowly make its way into your system.

Answer 5

I don't inject anything into my veins. My last injections however was for the HPV vaccine :) Hurt like a bit*h :(