Question

Patients who enter the emergency room dehydrated are usually given sterile saline solution intravenously. The solution administered is isotonic to prevent cell damage. What would happen if the solution was hypertonic?a)Hypertonic solutions have a lower osmotic pressure than that within cells so crenation can occur.b)Hypertonic solutions have the same osmotic pressure as that within cells so crenation can occur.c)Hypertonic solutions have a higher osmotic pressure than that within cells so crenation can occur.

Answer 1

Answer:

c)Hypertonic solutions have a higher osmotic pressure than that within cells so crenation can occur.

Explanation:

When giving solutions to a patient, we must be careful about the situation because giving an isotonic or a hypertonic solution can be the difference between life or death.

If the person is dehydrated, and we administer an hypertonic solution,  the result will be the death, because a hypertonic solution (high concentration of electrolytes) can actually dehydrate the cells, they will lose water by osmosis, because the osmotic pressure is higher outside and water will start to flow from a low concentration state to high concentration state, trying to equilibrate the medium, as we can see in the image below.