Korean J Anesthesiol.  1987 Dec;20(6):782-787. 10.4097/kjae.1987.20.6.782.

Measarement of Drop Factor of IV Infusion Set with Infusion Pump

• Kim YK
• Kim KH
• Lee DH
• Kim KS
• Suh JK
• Yoo HK
• Seung IS
• Chon SU

• KMID: 2090496
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4097/kjae.1987.20.6.782

Abstract

Accurate and reliable administration of intravenous infusion is necessary for a variety of different therapies including constant heparin, parenteral nutrition, cardiotonic and vasoactive mediciation and chemotherapy. For these purposes, drop counting is a common practice and a convenient way to measure the flow rate and the dose rate, but it is an unreliable and unexact method because the intravenous infusion sets from various manufacturers deliver different-sized drops depending on the rate of formation of the drops, properties of the particular fluid and physical characteristics of the intravenous infusion sets. This study evaluated the actual drop factor (DF) of a variety of intravenous infusion sets (10 IV Sets : 5 marked and 5 unmarked DF) at a low flow rate setting (20 ml/hr for pediatric and 40 ml/hr for adult) using a peristaltic fluid pump and distilled water, The measured Df is obtained by dividing the collected fluid volume per hour (ml/hr) by the number of drops per minute (drops/min) on the peristaltic fluid pump setting. The results ware as follows : 1) The actual DF values of the marked lV sets were 2 sets (DF= 1) 0.91 +/-0.04 and 0.97+/-0.03,2 sets (DF=3) 3.04+/-0.08 and 3.14+/-0.04 and 1 set (DF=4) 3.00+/-0.05. 2) The actual DF values of 5 lV sets with an unmarked DF ranged from 3.04+/-0.05 and 4.80+/-0.06. 3) The percent deviation of the actual DF values from the theoretical values of DF= 1,3,4 and the unmarked DF sets were -6.5+/-3.0, 3.0+/-1.6, -24.1 and 0.7+/-15.7 (-23.6~20.1)% respectively. 4) Among the physical factors influencing flow rate the size of the inlet orifice size of the intra-venous infusion s('t was a major one. 5) The majority of intravenous infusion sets from various manufacturers in the ROK are unmarked with respect to DF or drops perml.

MeSH Terms

Bays
Drug Therapy
Heparin
Infusion Pumps*
Infusions, Intravenous
Parenteral Nutrition
Water
Heparin
Water