The key to slowing or stopping your fistula from bleeding (whether it’s after a needle has been removed or (God forbid) a rupture) is to understand why it spurts in the first place.

Our fistulas are created by connecting a high-pressure artery, full of oxygenated blood coming at a great rate from our heart, to a vein, which is usually returning de-oxygenated blood at a leisurely rate (about 80 mL/min) from our body back to our heart for re-oxygenating. Linking the artery ramps up the blood flow through the vein (your fistula) to 700mL/min -1,000mL/min, that’s 1 litre per minute, so it’s rocketing along.

And with our arm resting by our side, or on the chair arm, the pumping pressure from the heart can be even greater, since the blood is running downhill from the heart.

Knowing this fact is the key to stopping the bleeding.

The simple act of raising our arm above out heart (or even better, our head) slows the blood speed amazingly.  Check out this video, which is a take-out from the fistula rupture presentation in my last post.

To stop the bleeding quickly, raise your arm.

The easiest, fastest way to stop fistula bleeding is to simply raise your arm.