You need to administer dopamine at 5 mcg/kg/min to a patient who weighs 180 pounds. You have a premixed bag with a concentration of 1600 mcg/mL and an IV set delivering 60 gtt/mL. What is the drip rate in drops per minute?

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Multiple Choice

You need to administer dopamine at 5 mcg/kg/min to a patient who weighs 180 pounds. You have a premixed bag with a concentration of 1600 mcg/mL and an IV set delivering 60 gtt/mL. What is the drip rate in drops per minute?

Understanding how to convert a prescribed microgram-per-minute dose to a drops-per-minute rate is the key. Start by turning the patient’s weight into kilograms, since the order is in mcg/kg/min. 180 pounds is about 81.6 kg (180 ÷ 2.2046). At 5 mcg/kg/min, the patient needs roughly 5 × 81.6 ≈ 408 mcg per minute. The premixed bag has 1600 mcg per milliliter, so on a per-minute basis that’s 408 mcg/min ÷ 1600 mcg/mL ≈ 0.255 mL/min. The IV set delivers 60 drops per milliliter, so the drops per minute are 0.255 mL/min × 60 drops/mL ≈ 15 drops per minute. Therefore, the drip rate should be about 15 gtt/min.

Understanding how to convert a prescribed microgram-per-minute dose to a drops-per-minute rate is the key. Start by turning the patient’s weight into kilograms, since the order is in mcg/kg/min. 180 pounds is about 81.6 kg (180 ÷ 2.2046). At 5 mcg/kg/min, the patient needs roughly 5 × 81.6 ≈ 408 mcg per minute.

The premixed bag has 1600 mcg per milliliter, so on a per-minute basis that’s 408 mcg/min ÷ 1600 mcg/mL ≈ 0.255 mL/min.

The IV set delivers 60 drops per milliliter, so the drops per minute are 0.255 mL/min × 60 drops/mL ≈ 15 drops per minute.

Therefore, the drip rate should be about 15 gtt/min.

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