Medication Math! Understanding how much is in the vial.

There are a lot of numbers listed on a vial label. All of these numbers mean something.

One of the biggest questions that can be asked: "Is there enough medicine in there?"

Converting from milligrams to units or milliliters to units can be hard or confusing!

To make this easier, we have done the converting for you!

First thing's first, understanding the abbreviations on the vial

mg means milligrams

In this context milligrams is a unit of measure that can be used for explaining a dose of medication.

mL means milliliters

In this context milliliters is a unit of measure that can be used for explaining the volume of medication in the vial. You can also explain as the amount of liquid in the bottle.

If the bottle is mL, why are instructions in Units?

The simplest answer is to decrease stress!

"Units" are another measurement type to explain volume (or liquid) in a vial (or bottle). Since the syringe is in units, we do the conversion from mL to units to decrease confusion and make instructions easy.

Time for the breakdown: Converting mL into units

1 mL = 100 units

2 mL = 200 units

2.5 mL = 250 units

3 mL = 300 units

5 mL = 500 units

How do I know how much is is in the vial?

The label on the vial will have this listed. It is not always in the same location- This will differ by companies.

See in the picture below the with the red arrows. The number listed explains how many milliliters (mL) are in the vial

How do I know how much is left if I am using the vial?

Simply subtract how much medication you removed from the total starting amount!

So if it is a 3 mL vial, then it's 300 units. If you used 30 units...

300 - 30 = 270 units remaining

Next time you take dose, continue to subtract from the new remaining volume.