manuel's web

diluting heparin for flushes

home

search

site map

Q.    You have run out of pre mixed vials of heparin flush and are going to need to make some. Standard heparin flushes for pediatric units is 10 units per 1 cc and is used on all peripheral IV's. You have a 50 cc bag of .9 NS and Heparin 1000 units/ 10 cc. How many cc's of heparin would you need to add to your 50 ml bag? 

Now normally I would call the pharmacy.. but this is the only one that I cannot figure out on my own. I don't do proportions so I need a way of doing it without the cross multiplications. SO....... is there a calculator on your site that maybe I am just not pulling the info out of the question to fill the calculator?? Or is this unrealistic to hope that I can get away without proportions?

A.    This is the best solution I could come up for your problem.  You want to use a 1000 unit vial of heparin to make a 10:1 heparin flush mixture.  Using the following formula, 

             dose available          
desired dose of concentration

x desired volume of concentration

Using your example:

1000 units = dose available
10 units = desired dose of concentration
1 mL = desired volume of concentration

 1000 u 
10 u

x 1 mL  = 100 mL

The answer is 100 mL.  100 milliliters of dilutant are needed to dilute 1000 units of heparin into a 10 unit/1 mL mixture.  Make sure and mark this bag with all the necessary information including total dosage and total volume.

NOTE:  Since the 1000 units of heparin was in a 10 mL vial you will have to account for this volume.  Withdraw 10 mL of your dilutant (i.e. normal saline) and waste it otherwise you will have a total volume of 110 mL.

Try the calculator below to solve the example.