Problem

The dose of a drug is critical. Too small a dose may not treat a patient effectively, while too much can cause serious side effects. A nurse must give a patient 25 mg of a drug for each kilogram of the patient's mass. If a patient weighs 220lb, how many milligrams of the drug should be given?

Use 1 kg=2.2lb and do not round any computations.
mg
X
5

Answer

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Answer

So, the patient should be given 2500mg of the drug.

Steps

Step 1 :Convert the patient's weight from pounds to kilograms using the conversion factor 1 kg = 2.2 lb. The equation is 220lb×1kg2.2lb. The lb units cancel out, leaving us with 2202.2=100kg.

Step 2 :Find out how many milligrams of the drug should be given. The nurse must give 25 mg of the drug for each kilogram of the patient's mass. The equation is 100kg×25mg/kg. The kg units cancel out, leaving us with 100×25=2500mg.

Step 3 :Check the work by substituting the values back into the original problem: 25mg/kg×100kg=2500mg.

Step 4 :So, the patient should be given 2500mg of the drug.

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