Pain/bruising after anaesthetic canula - is this normal?

[Penguintears]

I had surgery about a week ago. I've had anaesthetic quite a few times before but this time when they put the sedative into the canula (not putting the actual canula in but when he put the drugs into the canula) I had a searing pain right through my hand and into my whole wrist joint. I mentioned it to the anaesthetist and he put some kind of painkiller in the canula so it stopped hurting.

When I woke up from surgery there was no pain in the hand or wrist but the back of my hand was swollen. A few days later it turned purple/bruised and then a couple of days after that became really painful to touch.

I'm not massively worried about it but more curious about what happened and why it was so painful. I'm wondering if it somehow burst a vein or something through the force of pushing the drugs through the vein? Would be grateful for any insight from doctors/theatre staff.

I had a cannula put in on the inside of my elbow when I had surgery a couple of years ago. It was fine then the vein blew and the saline or whatever it was, was going just in to my arm and caused a big bubble. I felt a serious stinging pain when it happened and they took it out and repositioned. Ended up with this lovely bruise which spread over my whole forearm over a couple of days. Healed up just fine though.

Also bruised very badly after insertion of a cannula, like VERY badly. I cant speak to pain as I was in labour! Hope your bruise clears soon.

My hand blew up like this after a few minutes as a canula wasn't in the right place. I have a lingering bruise from another canula 10 weeks ago. I was absolutely covered in bruises from canulas and blood test sites whilst I was in. I was so glad when they gave me a picc line.

Sounds like it's fairly common then. It seems strange that as soon as he put the drugs in the back of my hand I had an awful pain on the inside of my wrist. But he didn't resite the canula, just gave me painkillers for it.

Some drugs burn like fuck unfortunately 😕

Propofol can have a burning/stinging/painful sensation as it is administered in some people. It is sometimes given with a local anaesthetic to numb this pain. It will have passed quickly though so is likely unrelated to your cannula site being painful for days afterwards.

Hope you're feeling better post op.

I've still got a mark or bruising where I had the canula inserted 14 months ago.