Confused about math ques.

Published

Can someone explain to me how to do this problem. Or how to set it up. Your pt. has an order to rec. 800 units of Heparin per hour by continuous intravenous infusion. If the pharmacy mixes the IV cag to contain a total of 5000 units of Heparin in 500 ml D%W, how many cc's per min. should the pt rec. Answer: 80 cc/min

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

your pt. has an order to rec. 800 units of heparin per hour by continuous intravenous infusion. if the pharmacy mixes the iv bag to contain a total of 5000 units of heparin in 500 ml d5w, how many cc's per min. should the patient receive? answer: 80 cc/min

800
(dose desired)
/5000
(dose on hand)
x 500 ml = 80 ml

i think that the problem is failing to tell you the kind of infusion mechanism being used. gravity tubing with a drop factor could be calculated at cc/minute; a pump at ml/hour.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Don't we have to convert hour into minutes too sine the 800 units dose we used in calculation were ordered as in per hour, but we need an answer in cc/min? I'm confused, thanks for the help.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in being a Credible Source.

The units in the problem statement is incorrect. The correct units, and the ones you get if you include the units in Daytonite's solution, are cc/hr.

With all answers you should apply the "Is this reasonable?" test. Think about 80 cc/min. Picture 80 cc and then try to imagine getting that infused in 1 minute... that obviously can't be.

It's 80 cc/hr.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Thanks. Now that makes sense.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion