Question

The physician ordered chloral hydrate 25 mg/kg for a child who weighs 55 pounds.

Convert pounds to kilograms and then calculate the prescribed dosage.

Answer 1

To convert pounds to kilograms, you can use the conversion factor: 1 pound is approximately equal to 0.453592 kilograms.

First, convert 55 pounds to kilograms:

\[
55 \text{ pounds} \times 0.453592 \text{ kg/pound} \approx 24.947 \text{ kg}
\]

Now, we'll round this to 25 kg for simplicity.

Next, calculate the prescribed dosage of chloral hydrate:

\[
\text{Dosage} = 25 \text{ mg/kg} \times 24.947 \text{ kg} \approx 623.675 \text{ mg}
\]

Thus, the prescribed dosage is approximately 624 mg when rounded to the nearest milligram.