Section VII. INJECTION DOSE CALCULATIONS
1-19. INTRODUCTION
a. Forms in Which Injections are Supplied. Injections are found in supply
either (1) in dry powder for reconstitution or (2) in a ready-made sterile solution or
suspension.
b. Labeling of Concentrations. Drugs for injection are labeled with
concentrations in various ways. Some examples might be:
(1) Morphine injection 8 mg/cc
(2) Thorazine injection 25 mg/ml
(3) Phenobarbital injection 1 grain/ml
(4) Lorfan injection 1 mg = 1 cc
(5) Kantrex injection 1 gram/3 cc
(6) Tetanus antitoxin 1500 units/cc
(7) Aramine injection one percent
NOTE: Remember that 1 cc = 1 ml
c. Choice of Syringe. After calculating the dose volume in milliliters, round off
your answer to the nearest tenth of a milliliter. It is generally best to choose the
smallest syringe capable of delivering the entire dose. For example, a 1-ml syringe
would be used for doses of 1 ml or less, a 2.5-ml syringe for doses between 1.0 and 2.5
ml, a 5-ml syringe for doses between 2.6 and 5.0 ml, and a 10-ml syringe for doses
between 5.0 and 10.0 ml.
a. Like Units. In using ratio and proportion to solve injection dose problems, we
must especially remember the necessity of using like units on the same side of each
ratio. For example, if our known concentration is expressed in milligrams/milliliter and
we want to find the number of milliliters required to provide a 1-gram dose, it would be
easiest to first express this dose as 1000 milligrams. In this manner, both the left and
right sides of the equation are expressed in mg/ml.
MD0913
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