hypotonic and hypertonic fluids

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I am having a hard time remembering the tonicity of intravenous fluids. How do you remember them all? I am just trying to read them over and over agian untill I finally remember them but it don't seem to be working. Any advice? It all seems like a bunch of crazy jibberish.

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I pretty much understand what hypotonic and hypertonic mean. I have got that from other threads but I am have a horrible time trying to remember all the types of solutions and what they are used for :-( :banghead:

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lets start with isotonic solutions... you have:

  • 0.9 normal saline
  • d5(5% dextrose) in water
  • ringers solution
  • lactated ringers as for the ringers just remember they contain a certain balance of a little bit of everything we need and its composition is similar to whats found in our plasma... making them isotonic forever and ever amen.

if you can remember the isotonic solutions then from here everything else is about numbers...

if 0.9% normal saline is isotonic and half of 0.9= 0.45% that would make this solution more dilute (more water...) therefore anything less than 0.9 is hypotonic

example: 0.45% saline

if the number is greater than 0.9% like say 3% ; 5%

or

has 2 solute percentages together like 5% in 0.45% well...

this definitely contains more solutes (more particles) therefore anything greater than 0.9 or contains 2 solute percentages is considered hypertonic

example:

  • 3% saline
  • 5% dextrose in 0.225% saline,
  • 5% dextrose in 0.45% saline,
  • 5% dextrose in 0.9% saline

notice how either the saline by itself is higher than 0.9% or there are 2 different types of % solutions going on here? (more solutes) this makes it hyper hyper hypertonic!

if you can grasp that concept then you should be fine. i hope this helps and i hope i didn't confuse you.

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
i am have a horrible time trying to remember all the types of solutions and what they are used for.
that information is included on this chart. you can open this file up and print it out: table of commonly used iv solutions.doc

the link to it is also posted on this post in one of the sticky threads: https://allnurses.com/forums/1458776-post6.html

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lets start with isotonic solutions... you have:
  • 0.9 normal saline
  • d5(5% dextrose) in water
  • ringers solution
  • lactated ringers as for the ringers just remember they contain a certain balance of a little bit of everything we need and its composition is similar to whats found in our plasma... making them isotonic forever and ever amen.

so both ringers soln & lactated ringers will be isotonic forever and ever amen? sorry that's probably a stupid question but i wanted to ask to be sure!:D

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

So both Ringers soln & Lactated Ringers will be isotonic forever and ever amen? Sorry that's probably a stupid question but I wanted to ask to be sure!:D

I can answer that for you. It is not a stupid question. Both Ringer's Solution and Lactated Ringer's will be isotonic forever and ever amen because they will always have the same recipe that makes them what they are.

  • Ringer's - has 147 mEq of sodium, 4 mEq of potassium, 4 mEq of calcium and 166 mEq of chloride. This results in an approximate pH of 5.8 and an osmolarilty of 310 making it isotonic.
  • Lactated Ringers - has 130 mEq of sodium, 4 mEq of potassium, 3 mEq of calcium, 109 mEq of chloride and 28 (I think its grams) of lactate. This results in an approximate pH of 6.6 and an osmolarilty of 275 making it isotonic.

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ShrimpChips,

It's cool.... Yes. Ringers, Lactated Ringers... Isotonic... forever and ever Amen.

Also there are other plenty of other IV solutions I just narrowed them down to a few to minimize confusion and to provide examples, but if you have a basic concept of the tonicity of solutions, then as they come at you even when they are not familiar (it's hard to remember them all) you can file them away much easier in your mental IV catalog.

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SORRY DAYTONITE,

We must've been responding at the same time :D.

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I got it forever and ever amen! Thank you so much for your replies :-) I will never forget this stuff now ha ha ha

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I remember in hypOtonic the O looks full of water

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Specializes in OR-ortho, neuro, trauma.

A million thank you's for this thread and the wonderful replies!!!!! We have F&E on our test on Thursday and this sums up the IV solutions so well!!! THANK YOU!!

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Specializes in Telemetry.

So I'll be graduating in May, and this is the first time IV solutions have seemed easy! :bowingpur

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