Monday November 27, 2006
Calcium infusion and thrombophlebitis !

One important factor while writing order for IV calcium infusion is of line availability. If central line is not available, it is better to write order for calcium gluconate instead of calcium chloride. Calcium infusion tends to cause thrombophlebitis and chances are higher with calcium chloride as it contains 3 times more elemental calcium in camparison to same dose of calcium gluconate.

1 gram of Calcium chloride contains 13.6 mEq of elemental Calcium while 1 gram of Calcium gluconate contains 4.65 mEq of elemental Calcium