Do not use percentages or ratios for solutions, study says
Labelling drug solutions as ratios or percentages is confusing, according to research reported in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine
(2004;97:380-3).
Respondents were asked to complete six web-based multiple-choice questions
about three drug solutions –– adrenaline (expressed as a
ratio), lidocaine (expressed as a percentage) and atropine (expressed
as mg/ml).
Around 3,000 doctors replied, with a third not being able to identify
correctly the mass of drug in the solution when it was labelled as a
percentage and almost 15 per cent not being able to correctly identify
the mass when it was labelled as a ratio. Over 93 per cent were able
to identify the correct mass when the drug was expressed as mass per
unit volume. However, using mass per volume was not without its problems,
with only 66 per cent of respondents identifying the correct volume of
solution to administer in a clinical situation.
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Hospital Pharmacist