Question

A hospital pharmacy prepares fifteen 100 ml epidurals each week. Each epidural contains 0.125% bupivacaine. The pharmacy's wholesaler stocks 30 ml vials of 0.5% preservative free bupivacaine. How many of the 30 ml vials should the pharmacy order from the wholesaler each week?

Answer 1

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Answer:

13 vials of 30 ml vials the pharmacy should order from the wholesaler each week.

Explanation:

Total volume of epidural prepared by the pharmacist each week =15 vials x 100 mL = 1500 mL

Concentration of bupivacaine in final solution = 0.125 %            

Total amount = 0.125 % of 1500 mL = (0.125/ 100) X 1500 = 1.875mL

each week= 1.875 ml X 100 ml epidurals = 187.5 ml

How many of the 30 ml vials should the pharmacy order from the wholesaler each week?

For amount of epidural in ml,

187.5 ml  divided by 30 ml = 6.25 ml

but here, 0.5% concentration is only available in the wholesaler's stock, so we will order accordingly.

For amount of epidural in vials, now we need this amount in a concentration of 0.5 percent.:

6.25 ml divided by  0.5 = 12.5 (we will round it about to 13 , because, we can't have 12.5 vials of epidural, we will need to have complete 13 vials )

therefore, 13 vials will be required to be ordered each week by the pharmacy from the wholesaler .