Question

A 75-year-old client is admitted to the hospital with lower gastrointestinal bleeding. the client's hemoglobin on admission to the emergency department is 7.3 g/dl. the health care provider prescribes two units of packed red blood cells (rbcs) to infuse over one hour each. each unit of packed rbcs contains 250 ml. the blood administration set has a drip factor of 10 gtt/ml. what is the flow rate in drops per minute? record your answer using a whole number.

Answer 1

For the answer to the question above,

let's say Each unit of packed red blood cells contains 250 ml. Each unit is to infuse over 1 hour (60 minutes).

Use the following equation:
250 ml/60 minutes = 4.16 ml.
Multiply by the drip factor:
4.16 ml × 10 gtt = 41.6 gtt/minute (42 gtt/minute).