Thursday June 21, 2007
Calcium infusion and thrombophlebitis

One important factor while writing order for IV calcium is of central 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 gluconate contains 4.65 mEq of elemental Calcium, and
1 gram of Calcium chloride contains 13.6 mEq of elemental Calcium.