Maintenence fluids

chare · Nov 25, 2016

Hi,
Just doing some practice questions for paediatric maintenence fluids - do we round up/down accordingly or leave answer to decimal places??
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In practice, if I am using a calculator, I never round until I have completed all calculations at which time I will round to a level appropriate to the device I am using.

Only then will I round to a level appropriate to the device I am using.

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Also, if for eg a patient weights 13kg would we omit the second 10kg of body weight, so:
10 x 100 = 1000 (for the first 10kg body weight)
3 x 20 = 60 (for each kg after)
or would we somehow have to use the 50ml/kg for the 3kg as being second to the first 10kg body weight??
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First, I am not sure which formula you are using. If you are using the Holliday-Segar method, you would use the following to calculate total maintenance fluids, for a 24 hour period:

For the first 10 kg: 100 mL/kg

For the second 10 kg: 50 mL/kg + 1000 mL

For every kg >20kg: 20 mL/kg + 1500 mL

So, for a 13 kg patient, total maintenance fluids, for a 24 hour period, would beâ€¦

As for rounding. In clinical practice how you rounded this would depend on the accuracy of your infusion device, however most current pumps allow you to set a rate to 0.1 mL/hour. As for school, ask your instructor to how many decimal places you should round.