Abstract
The present study was conducted as part of an evidence-based nursing project to investigate extravasation of administered catecholamines using a rat model. Skin lesions were induced in rats by subcutaneous injection of catecholamines into the back skin, and then observed macroscopically and histologically for 7 days.
Histological examination revealed an acute inflammatory reaction in the subcutaneous tissue on the first day, irrespective of whether or not ulcers developed, and the damage remained until the 7th day. Rats that developed ulcers showed multiple thrombi and damage to vascular endothelial cells in the subcutaneous tissue, the former persisting up to the third day. This confirmed that ulcers resulting from extravasation of the catecholamines were related to continuous circulatory disturbance due to multiple thrombus formation.
These findings suggest that extravasation of catecholamines is significant because it results in continuous damage to subcutaneous tissue, even if the extravasation site appears macroscopically normal.
