anesthesia and math....

I'll try to simplify the concepts:

Always use the int'l units of measure (kg and liters). If you're using mL, then you should be using grams.

Q: How many miligrams of Lido are found in 40 mL of a 1% solution?

A: 0.4 grams

1% solution => 1 gram of Lido for every 100 mL of solution.

Q: A pt has an order for 200 mL of a 2% Lido solution. How many mgs of lido are contained in this order?

A: 4000 mgs.

2% solution => 2 gms for each 100 mL => 4 gms for 200 mL.

The problems asks for mgs. 4 gms = 4000 mgs.

Q: You have 2 mL of Epi 1:10,000. How many miligrams of Epi are contained in this solution?

A: 0.2 mgs.

1:10000 = there's 1 gram of epi for each 10,000 mL of solution.

In 2 mL you'll have 2/10,000 grams, or 0.0002 grams.

The problem asks for miligrams, so you multiply the grams by 1,000.

Good luck.

Any more questions, give me a holler. I'm an ex-engineer...

Look on the web for more problems.

I say I have to make no mistakes with such problems, at 2:00 am, after 5 beers... that's how important I think it is. A digit mistake means serious complications with my patient.

Greetings CRNA folk...

As an SRNA, we just went over the 'math' of epi doses/concentrations.

I am still a little 'in the woods' on this concept and was wondering if ya'll had some thoughts/advice on the topic.

thanks to all.

The easiest way for me to remember the concentrations:

all are a factor of one million. For example, an epi concentration of 1:100,000...how many times does 100,000 go into one million? Ten times, therefore 10mcg/mL.

Epi 1:200,000....goes into one million five times, 5 mcg/mL. And it continues for 1:1000, 1:10,000, etc.

Make sense?