College

CHALLENGE QUESTION

A patient weighs 147 pounds and needs to receive 5 mg/kg of a certain medication. How many mg should the patient receive?

Answer :

Final answer:

The patient should therefore receive 333.4 mg of the medication.

Explanation:

The student's question pertains to the calculation of medication dosage based on body weight. To find out how many milligrams (mg) the patient should receive, we use the given dosage of 5 mg/kg and the patient's weight of 147 pounds.

First, convert the weight from pounds to kilograms by dividing by 2.20462, since there are approximately 2.20462 pounds in a kilogram. After this conversion, multiply the patient's weight in kilograms by the dosage per kilogram to obtain the total medication dosage in mg.

Conversion: 147 lb ÷ 2.20462 = 66.68 kg (rounded to two decimal places)

Dosage calculation: 66.68 kg × 5 mg/kg = 333.4 mg

The patient should therefore receive 333.4 mg of the medication.