You are caring for Clint in the emergency department who is experiencing chest pain. You are preparing to initiate nitroglycerin by continuous IV infusion.. what do you need to monitor when administering nitroglycerin? Do the calculation. You are to start the infusion at 5mcg/min and increase the dose by 5 mcg every 5 minutes. You have on hand nitroglycerin 25 mg in D5W 250mL and must calculate how many mL/hr to give. Calculate answer and explain your work.

Question

You are caring for Clint in the emergency department who is experiencing chest pain. You are preparing to initiate nitroglycerin by continuous IV infusion.. what do you need to monitor when administering nitroglycerin? Do the calculation. You are to start the infusion at 5mcg/min and increase the dose by 5 mcg every 5 minutes. You have on hand nitroglycerin 25 mg in D5W 250mL and must calculate how many mL/hr to give. Calculate answer and explain your work.

Answer 1

When administering nitroglycerin by continuous IV infusion, it is important to monitor the patient's blood pressure, heart rate, and chest pain intensity. It is also important to monitor for signs of hypotension, headache, and dizziness.

To calculate the mL/hr to give for the nitroglycerin infusion, we first need to determine how many mcg/min are in the infusion solution.

There are 25 mg of nitroglycerin in 250 mL of D5W, which means there are 1000 mcg in 1 mg.

25 mg x 1000 mcg = 25,000 mcg

25,000 mcg in 250 mL means there are 100 mcg in 1 mL.

Now, we know that the starting dose is 5 mcg/min and will increase by 5 mcg every 5 minutes.

To calculate the mL/hr to give, we can use the following formula:

(total dose in mcg/min x total volume in mL) / dose in mcg

= (5 mcg/min x 250 mL) / 100 mcg = 12.5 mL/hr

Therefore, the nitroglycerin infusion should be started at 5 mcg/min and increased by 5 mcg every 5 minutes. The total infusion rate should be 12.5 mL/hr.