Constant rate infusions

Re: Constant rate infusions

Nick Shackleton — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 23:28:49 GMT

[quote user="daisy"]

i was researching CRI's the other week and found out if using morphine it needs to be protected from light, this was news to me, at my last practice we did CRI for analgesia a lot and never wrapped the fluid bag!!!!!!

[/quote]

This is tru morphine is unstable once opened as there is no preservative in it!

Re: Constant rate infusions

daisy — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 02:37:08 GMT

Re: Constant rate infusions

hobbits — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 22:53:00 GMT

we use them a lot as well, and have a comp programme which I have a link to at work whcih I can post up fri night. I prefer to double check it as well manually. I always work out the CRI's as it is normally me harassing the vets about analgesia and its easier to get them to agree if presented with a complete plan.

The way I do it is to select a morphine (for xample) dose from the range, along with the vet based on an estimate of pain using the pain scale.

Then decide if you are using the existing fluids or placing a second iv cath and giving seperately. If the animal is on a stable fluid rate then using the same bag is fine. If you are going to be adjusting the rate a lot (exp on resus fluids) then placing a second line will be better.

Say your dose of morphine you wanted was 0.1mg/kg/hr (this is only an example not a proper dose). the cat was 5kg - 0.5mg/hr.

If it was a 500ml bag and the cat was on 2x maintenance (20ml/hr) the bag would last 25 hours. 0.5mg/hr x 25 = 12.5 mg in total.

then depends on your morphine strength. if you use 10mg/ml then 12.5/10 = 1.25ml in the whole bag

if you use 30mg/ml then 12.5/30 = 0.42ml

dont forget though that if you then turn the fluids down to maintenance it will half the morphine dose and this should then be adjusted.

I love CRI's for severe pain - the difference it makes to the animal is amazing!! Good luck - theyre fun really!!

HTH and makes sense to someone not me!!

Re: Constant rate infusions

Kay Eminson — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:41:07 GMT

our constant rate infusions for morphine, ketamine etc are worked out using a computer based programme, not sure where he got it from but I'm pretty sure he got it when being on a CPD course and the vets sort it all out. Our responsibility is to ensure it keeps running

Re: Constant rate infusions

Steph Worsley — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:28:29 GMT

hey we do a lot of CRI's but its usually the anaesthetists who sort out the dose rates for analgesia/propofol, we use syringe drivers for them.

we also do metoclopromide CRI's where we add metoclop into the drip bag, doses are in the formulary, just remember that you administer this over 24 hours and work out your rate accordingly and wrap the bag/syringe to protect from light