Intravenous

How it is used

Usually shortened to IV in writing and speech ('IV antibiotics', 'switch from IV to oral'). Hospital pharmacists check IV doses, the compatibility of mixtures and infusion rates. A quick IV injection is a bolus; a slow one is an infusion or, informally in the UK, a drip.

Example sentences

1. Intravenous paracetamol is used when the patient cannot take anything by mouth.

2. When a drug is given intravenously, its bioavailability is 100 percent by definition.

Common collocations

• intravenous infusion
• intravenous injection
• IV antibiotics
• IV to oral switch
• give intravenously

Related terms

• injectionA way of giving a medicine with a needle and syringe or a pen device into a vein, a muscle or the tissue under the skin; also the liquid medicine itself.
• route of administrationThe way a medicine enters the body, for example by mouth, through the skin, by injection into a vein or muscle, or by breathing it in.
• intramuscularGiven by injection deep into a muscle, such as the upper arm, thigh or buttock, from where the medicine is absorbed into the blood.
• subcutaneousGiven by injection into the fatty tissue just under the skin, from where the medicine is absorbed slowly into the blood.
• bioavailabilityThe proportion of a dose that reaches the general circulation unchanged and can act in the body; by definition it is 100 percent for intravenous drugs.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

• intravenous · Medicine

More terms: Routes of Administration

• oral
• topical
• sublingual