RT Book, Section A1 Shargel, Leon A1 Wu-Pong, Susanna A1 Yu, Andrew B.C. SR Print(0) ID 56602042 T1 Chapter 5. Intravenous Infusion T2 Applied Biopharmaceutics & Pharmacokinetics, 6e YR 2012 FD 2012 PB The McGraw-Hill Companies PP New York, NY SN 978-0-07-160393-5 LK accesspharmacy.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=56602042 RD 2024/10/14 AB Drugs may be administered to patients by one of various routes including oral, topical, or parenteral routes of administration. Examples of parenteral routes of administration include intravenous, subcutaneous, and intramuscular. Intravenous (IV) drug solutions may be given either as a bolus dose (injected all at once) or infused slowly through a vein into the plasma at a constant or zero-order rate. The main advantage for giving a drug by IV infusion is that IV infusion allows precise control of plasma drug concentrations to fit the individual needs of the patient. For drugs with a narrow therapeutic window (eg, heparin), IV infusion maintains an effective constant plasma drug concentration by eliminating wide fluctuations between the peak (maximum) and trough (minimum) plasma drug concentration. Moreover, the IV infusion of drugs, such as antibiotics, may be given with IV fluids that include electrolytes and nutrients. Furthermore, the duration of drug therapy may be maintained or terminated as needed using IV infusion.