so...exactly how fast is "wide open"? MAG in 250 cc experiment

[systemet]

Quick question...where do you get the exact pressure gradient of 75 cm H2O? Not doubting you , just trying to figure it out. Thanks.

Sure, this is actually fairly trivial, you said that the bag was 30 inches about the patient, so 30 x 2.54 cm/inch = somewhere around 75 cm. Then I figured that the density of saline with a little bit of mag in it was probably pretty close to the density of water.

There's probably other factors that modify that number a bit, but I'm no physicist. It's a rough ballpark figure.

Dwayne, thanks for the kind words. I'm not sure how relevant what I'm contributing here is though

Edited December 16, 2011 by systemet

[croaker260]

Sure, this is actually fairly trivial, you said that the bag was 30 inches about the patient, so 30 x 2.54 cm/inch = somewhere around 75 cm. Then I figured that the density of saline with a little bit of mag in it was probably pretty close to the density of water.

There's probably other factors that modify that number a bit, but I'm no physicist. It's a rough ballpark figure.

Dwayne, thanks for the kind words. I'm not sure how relevant what I'm contributing here is though

Thanks, much appreciated.

NOW, WHY hasnt ANYONE else reproduced the same experiment? Hint Hint.....

[zzyzx]

I've done a similar experiment. There are so many variables that you are never going to be sure how fast the infusion will go. But the point really is, so what? Any gravity drip infusion is not intended to be very accurate, and the point is not that you "set and forget," but that you keep checking how fast the infusion is going. Just set your stop watch, and if if seems to be going a little to fast or too slow, just adjust the rate.

[croaker260]

I've done a similar experiment. There are so many variables that you are never going to be sure how fast the infusion will go. But the point really is, so what? Any gravity drip infusion is not intended to be very accurate, and the point is not that you "set and forget," but that you keep checking how fast the infusion is going. Just set your stop watch, and if if seems to be going a little to fast or too slow, just adjust the rate.

The background to this experiment is this. Our medical director(s) positions have recently evolved to a system wide medical directorate. This is usually a good thing for inter-agency cooperation, but there have been a few little details I am trying to iron out. This is one of them. With this change we went from running some infusions (like mag) in a bag to the more cumbersome buritrol. When we switched t the buritrol, the incidence of this medication being given dropped significant, go figure.

We switched to the buritrol because one of the new docs was afraid of a run away line/infusion in a worse case scenario. I am trying to see if that the "worse case scenario" is still with in safety parameters.

Does that make sense?

And if you need a better reason to do this, because doing crap like this makes us better medics...and honestly...its fun!

Edited December 16, 2011 by croaker260