Summary: Finally a non-intubation topic! Bolus dose pressors and inotropes have been used by the anesthesiologists for decades, but they have not penetrated into standard emergency medicine practice. I don’t know why. They are the perfect solution to short-lived hypotension, e.g. post-intubation or during sedation. They also can act as a bridge to drip pressors while they are being mixed or while a central line is being placed. Click Here for printable sheet with mixing instructions Ephedrine I don’t use this one much anymore, listen to the podcast to hear why. Onset-Near Instant Duration-1 hour Mixing Instructions: Take a 10 ml syringe with 9 ml of normal saline Into this syringe, draw up 1 ml of ephedrine from the vial (vial contains Ephedrine 50 mg/ml) Now you have 10 mls of Ephedrine 5 mg/ml Dose: 1-2 ml every 2-5 minutes (5-10 mg) No extravasation worries! Epinephrine Do not give cardiac arrest doses (1 mg) to patients with a pulse Has alpha and beta-1/2 effects so it is an inopressor Onset-1 minute Duration-5-10 minutes Mixing Instructions: Take a 10 ml syringe with 9 ml of normal saline Into this syringe, draw up 1 ml of epinephrine from the cardiac amp (amp contains Epinephrine 100 mcg/ml) Now you have 10 mls of Epinephrine 10 mcg/ml Dose: 0.5-2 ml every 2-5 minutes (5-20 mcg) No extravasation worries! Mixing Video: Phenylephrine Phenyl as a bolus dose is just the best! It is clean, quick, and never causes trouble. It is pure alpha, so no intrinsic inotropy, but increases in heart perfusion can improve cardiac output. Onset-1 minute Duration- 20 minutes Mixing Instructions: Take a 3 ml syringe and draw up 1 ml of phenylephrine from the vial (vial contains phenylephrine 10 mg/ml) Inject this into a 100 ml bag of NS Now you have 100 mls of phenylephrine 100 mcg/ml Draw up some into a syringe; each ml in the syringe is 100 mcg Dose: 0.5-2 ml every 2-5 minutes (50-200 mcg) No extravasation worries! Please send me any comments or questions Mixing Video:
