Question

a patient with ventricular fibrillation is prescribed with bretylium 5 mcg/kg/minute. the medication comes mixed 50 mg in 50 ml of 0.9 % normal saline. the patient's weight is 170 lbs. how much of the medication will you administer per hour? fill in the blank and round off your final answer

Answer 1

To calculate the amount of medication to administer per hour, convert the patient's weight from lbs to kg and apply the prescribed dosage per hour. It is recommended to administer approximately 23.2 mg of the medication per hour.

Step-by-step explanation:

To calculate the amount of medication to administer per hour, you need to convert the patient's weight from pounds to kilograms. 170 lbs is approximately 77.3 kg. Next, you need to calculate the dosage per hour. Bretylium is prescribed at a rate of 5 mcg/kg/minute. So, for a patient weighing 77.3 kg, the dosage per hour would be:

5 mcg/kg/minute x 60 minutes x 77.3 kg = 23190 mcg/hour

The medication is mixed 50 mg in 50 ml of normal saline. To convert mcg to mg, divide by 1000:

23190 mcg/hour ÷ 1000 = 23.19 mg/hour

Therefore, you would administer approximately 23.2 mg of the medication per hour.

Answer 2

To administer bretylium to a patient weighing 170 lbs. you convert their weight to kilograms, calculate the dosage in micrograms per minute, and then multiply by 60 to get an hourly dose. Given the concentration of 1 mg/mL, you would administer approximately 23.133 mL of the medication per hour.

To calculate the amount of bretylium to administer per hour to a patient with ventricular fibrillation, we need to first convert the patient's weight from pounds to kilograms since the dosage is based on weight in kilograms.

Given that 1 pound is approximately equivalent to 0.453592 kilograms, we have:

170 lbs * 0.453592 kg/lb = 77.11 kg (rounded to two decimal places)

The prescribed dosage is 5 mcg/kg/minute, therefore:

5 mcg/kg/minute * 77.11 kg = 385.55 mcg/minute

Since there are 60 minutes in an hour, we convert the dosage to an hourly basis:

385.55 mcg/minute * 60 minutes/hour = 23133 mcg/hour or 23.133 mg/hour

The medication comes mixed as 50 mg in 50 mL, meaning there is 1 mg/mL. To find out how many mL to administer per hour, we use the hourly dosage in mg and divide by the concentration:

23.133 mg/hour ÷ 1 mg/mL = 23.133 mL/hour

Therefore, the patient should be administered approximately 23.133 mL of the medication per hour.

The complete question is here:

A patient with ventricular fibrillation is prescribed with bretylium 5 mcg/kg/minute. the medication comes mixed 50 mg in 50 ml of 0.9 % normal saline. the patient's weight is 170 lbs. how much of the medication will you administer per hour?