Intravenous Bolus and Infusion

Synonyms

Administration, Direct injection, Drug for injection, Infusion, Injection, IV bolus, IV push, Parenteral infusion

Definition

Intravenous bolus and intravenous infusion are the two ways in which a parenteral drug solution can be administered directly into a patient’s vein. A bolus is a rapid injection, typically within seconds or a few minutes, of a solution into a vein. An IV infusion, on the contrary, involves administering the drug solution for longer periods of time. While a short infusion can last 10–20 minutes, long infusions can take several hours, even days.

A Matter of Pharmacokinetics

Since they use the same administration route, IV bolus and IV infusion share many common characteristics, among them:

• They imply the injection of the drug solution directly into a patient’s vein.

• They allow the use of the same pharmaceutical dosage form, i.e., sterile solutions (or dry powders to reconstitute as a sterile solution), of aqueous or predominantly aqueous base (see chapter “I...