IV drips? how to calculate?

Question

can you please help me to understand this equation... should i say, please help me to calculate this... or, can you please give me some examples...

using this formula, can you give example for this one...

D/S x Q (quantity)

total infusion volume/total infusion time

total volume x gtt (drop) factor/total time x 60 mins.

can you help me please???

Answer 1

Let's say you have an order to administer 1000cc of LR at 125cc per hour. The bag will run 8 hours (1000/125).

Your challenge is to make sure that it is dripping at a rate, per minute, to insure that it goes in according to the order.

Let's say that your IV administration set has a drop factor of 16 drops = 1 cc. (It is on the packaging, as you know.)

This means that 125 cc = 2000 drops (per hour).

That translates into 2000 drops / 60 = 33 drops per minute into the drip chamber.

So most of us would be happy if we saw 16 drops fall in 30 seconds.

The bag may fall behind schedule if the patient is also receiving IV medication via piggyback, as that sometimes causes the primary drip (the LR) to stop while the medicine is administered.

Answer 2

The total  infusion is the amount of solution you have in your IV bag ie. 1000 ml.

The drop factor is always a constant number tat should be provided.

The total time is the amount of time it takes the entire bag to inufse. 60 minutes is used because there are 60 minutes in one hour.

This formula will give you drops/ minute so you can regulate your IV drops.

You usually need to lern this bullshit in nursing school.

Hope it helps!!!

Answer 3

I think it's total drips per second, divided by volume equals exact dosage. You have to know how many milligrams you are trying to get.

Answer 4

When calculating IV drip rates, you need to set up an equation so that you end up with the number that the question is asking for. You haven't posted an actual IV drip rate question that I could calculate and explain, and you just put half of an equation up there, with nothing to balance it! No wonder you're confused! Also remember that different sized tubing has different drop factors.