Drug-specific dosing weight
The body-weight calculator gives four scalars and leaves the choice open. This one looks up the basis a named source states for one drug, and shows the kilograms that basis gives. Where two sources name different bases, both are shown, because the calculator does not choose.
The calculator reads the adult statements from 18 years.
The list follows drug class order. This drug is in the neuromuscular blocker class.
Class-level statements
Read these statements. The calculator does not apply them to any drug automatically, because a drug can contradict its own class.
Most anesthetic drugs
With the exception of neuromuscular antagonists, lean body weight is the optimal dosing scalar for most drugs used in anaesthesia, including opioids and induction agents.
Ingrande & Lemmens, Br J Anaesth 2010;105(Suppl 1):i16-i23
Non-depolarising neuromuscular blockers
Dosing is often based on ideal body weight to prevent prolonged paralysis, because the volume of distribution of these hydrophilic drugs stays relatively consistent.
OpenAnesthesia, neuromuscular blockade; WFSA Anaesthesia Tutorial of the Week, perioperative care for bariatric surgery
Intraoperative opioids
Dose using lean body weight to begin with, then titrate to effect once the patient is awake.
WFSA Anaesthesia Tutorial of the Week, perioperative care for bariatric surgery
Local anesthetic maximum doses
Calculate maximum doses according to ideal body weight.
WFSA Update in Anaesthesia vol 34, morbid obesity in pregnancy
General bariatric rule
Base drug dosing on ideal body weight or adjusted body weight to avoid overdosing, with suxamethonium named as the exception.
WFSA Anaesthesia Tutorial of the Week, perioperative care for bariatric surgery
What this table assumes
- Every source in this table is describing obesity. Near a normal body mass index the four scalars sit close together and the choice moves the number very little.
- Where two sources name different scalars for one drug, both are returned with the source that states each. This calculator does not choose between them.
- A drug the sources do not name is refused rather than dosed from its class, because a drug can contradict its own class.
- The output is a weight in kilograms and the basis that produced it. Milligrams per kilogram belong to the label and to the guideline.
This calculator looks up what a named source states for one drug. It does not resolve a disagreement between two sources, it does not apply a class statement to a drug the sources do not name, and it does not print a dose.