Question

Medication Z is prescribed for a 50 kg woman and is to be given in enteric-coated pills of 125 mg per pill This medication is to be administered every 6 hours, but the total daily amount cannot exceed 8 mg.per kg of body weight per day. a) How many pills will this patient need? b) If the first dose is administered at 6 AM, when is the last dose given?

Answer 1

a) The patient is going to need 3.2 pills. So four doses.

b) The last dose is at midnight, that i consider 12 PM

Explanation:

This problem can be solved by a rule of three in which the measures are directly related, meaning that we have a cross multiplication.

a) How many pills will this patient need?

The first step is finding how many mg she is going to need.

She weighs 50kg, and the total daily amount cannot exceed 8 mg per kg of body. So:

1kg - 8 mg

50 kg - x mg

`x = 50*8`

`x = 400`mg.

Each dose has 125 mg, so she will need:

1 dose - 125 mg

x doses - 400mg

`125x = 400`

`x = (400)/(125)`

`x = 3.2`

The patient is going to need 3.2 pills. So four doses.

b) If the first dose is administered at 6 AM, when is the last dose given?

There are four doses, administered every 6 hours.

6AM: First dose

12AM: Second dose

6PM: Third dose

12PM: Fourth Dose

The last dose is at midnight, that i consider 12 PM