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Intravenous Lipid Therapy & Complications

Lipid infusion therapy---or lipid therapy, for short---involves the use of injections to remove fat by injecting lipids into the body. Lipids are naturally occurring molecules made up of various fats, vitamins, monoglycerides and diglycerides. Lipid therapy is often used as a form of treatment to lower cholesterol. Although it is considered a treatment option for patients with high levels of fat, it is considered unsafe for people with coronary heart disease and there are many possible complications associated with the treatment.

  1. How it Works

    • The major aim of lipid therapy is to lower levels of low density lipoproteins or "bad" (LDL) cholesterol, according to Medscape. The treatment, which consists of injecting statins into the body, can cause three potential problems. These problems are classified into three types: mechanical, infectious and metabolic. Mechanical problems arise from catheter placement; infectious issues are caused by improper infusion; and metabolic problems are those caused by the content of the infusion itself.

    Infections

    • A study conducted in Britain called the Heart Protection Study (published in the July 2002 issue of "The Lancet") found that as many as 22 percent of patients given infusions of cholesterol-lowering drugs had problems ranging from the treatment lowering the wrong form of cholesterol (lowering HDL levels, which are "good" cholesterol, instead of LDL levels) to the development of atherosclerosis (the collection of fat in artery walls). The study also demonstrated that lipid therapy may cause infections that require antibiotic treatments in up to two-thirds of patients receiving infusions. Lipid infusions have also caused a condition called bacteremia, the presence of transient bacteria in the blood, leading to a state of increased susceptibility to infection.

    Other Complications

    • Other complications associated with lipid infusion include infections such as septicemia (septic shock caused by bacteria in the blood). Lipid infusion may even be responsible for heart attacks and problems with metabolism, according to a study conducted by the Massachusetts Medical Society and published in the June 1990 issue of "The New England Journal of Medicine." Some people who are given IV lipids suffer oxidative stress, intravascular fat deposition, abnormal vascular tone and fat embolisms.

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