IV Flow Rates

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Hi! Help! I don't see anywhere on my formula list that talks about doing calculations with Units.

Here's 2 problems i'm absoloutely stuck on.

1.) The tricupsid valve repair patient has orders for D5W 1000 ml with 30,000 U heparin. Infuse at 500 u/hr. Drop factor is 60 gtt/ml.

I need to find the ______ ml/h

______ ml/min

_______ gtt/min

2.) Your hypertensive patient has orders for Nipride 50 mg in 250 ml D5W. Infuse at 3 mcg/kg/min for a patient weighing 82 kg. Drop factor is 60 gtt/ml.

I need to find __246 mcg/min__ amt. drug/min for 82 kg patient

______ amt drug/ml

_______ ml/min

________ gtt/min

Thanks for your help in advance!:smiletea2:

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help!

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Hi! Help! I don't see anywhere on my formula list that talks about doing calculations with Units.

Here's 2 problems i'm absoloutely stuck on.

1.) The tricupsid valve repair patient has orders for D5W 1000 ml with 30,000 U heparin. Infuse at 500 u/hr. Drop factor is 60 gtt/ml.

I need to find the ______ ml/h

______ ml/min

_______ gtt/min

2.) Your hypertensive patient has orders for Nipride 50 mg in 250 ml D5W. Infuse at 3 mcg/kg/min for a patient weighing 82 kg. Drop factor is 60 gtt/ml.

I need to find __246 mcg/min__ amt. drug/min for 82 kg patient

______ amt drug/ml

_______ ml/min

________ gtt/min

1) you need to find units per ml first, divide that into dose=ml per dose(hourly), divide that by 60 (minutes)=ml/min; multiply that by 60=ggt/min

2) amount of drug/ml is 50/250....(divide) ; ml/min= drug/ml x 0.246; gtt/min=ml/min x ggt factor, in this case 60

i am no more/less prone to move decimal points than anyone else,lol. you need to have an idea of the range your answer needs to be in....when i first did the second prob., i had the first calc UPSIDE DOWN, what a mess that would have been! the first one, i doubt you would ever see, heparin is usually supplied premixed 25,000/500....a 1000 ml bag would be wasted.

and dont let the "units" (pun intended) of measure confuse your arithmetic calc...

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thank you very much~~~~~~~~~~~

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
the tricupsid valve repair patient has orders for d5w 1000 ml with 30,000 u heparin. infuse at 500 u/hr. drop factor is 60 gtt/ml.

i need to find the ______ ml/h

______ ml/min

_______ gtt/min

find ml per hour: you've been given the essential information, what's in the iv bag and how fast it's infusing. that's all you need to find this answer. you merely set these ratios up in a dimensional analysis equation in order to cancel out the labels on the numbers so you end up with a ratio, or fraction, that has "ml" in the numerator and "hour" in the denominator of the final answer. dimensional analysis is all about manipulating the terms of the equation.

1000 ml
/
30,000 units
(dose you have available)
x
500 units
/
1 hour
(what you are giving the patient)
=
16.666 ml/hour

find ml per minute: this merely requires a conversion factor to be applied

to the problem

1000 ml
/
30,000 units
(dose you have available)
x
500 units
/
1 hour
(what you are giving the patient)
x
1 hour
/
60 minutes
(conversion factor)
=
0.27777 ml/minute

find drops per minute: you merely apply the drop factor of your tubing to the equation.

1000 ml
/
30,000 units
(dose you have available)
x
500 units
/
1 hour
(what you are giving the patient)
x
1 hour
/
60 minutes
(conversion factor)
x
60 gtts/1 ml
(drop factor of iv tubing)
=
17 drops/minute
(after rounding off)

your hypertensive patient has orders for nipride 50 mg in 250 ml d5w. infuse at 3 mcg/kg/min for a patient weighing 82 kg. drop factor is 60 gtt/ml.

i need to find __246 mcg/min__ amt. drug/min for 82 kg patient

______ amt drug/ml

_______ ml/min

________ gtt/min

i'm not sure i'm understanding exactly what you are supposed to calculate here, but i'll try. your 82 kg patient is supposed to get 246 mcg/min. that is 3 mcg (dose desired) x 82 kg (patient's weight).

amount of drug per ml:

500 mg
/
250 ml
(dose on hand)
x
1000 mcg
/
1 mg
(conversion factor)
=
2000 mcg/1 ml

find ml per minute to be given: use the above answer to calculate this figure.

3 mcg
/
1kg
(dose to give)
x
1
/
1 min
(the time part of the dose to give)
x
82 kg
(weight of patient)
x
1 ml
/
2000 mcg
(amount of drug per ml)
=
0.123 ml/min

find gtts/min:

0.123 ml
/
1 minute
(infusion rate determined above)
x
60 gtts
/
1 ml
(drop factor of iv tubing)
=
7.38 gtts
/
min
=
7 gtts/min
(rounded off)

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