Monitoring patients when administering IV phenytoin

PLEASE NOTE:   Posts made to this forum should not be considered as the expressed opinions of, nor should be considered endorsed by, the Medication Safety Officer’s Society (MSOS) or the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP). 

Make sure your email is up-to-date
In order to continue to receive updates from MSOS, as well as forum posts and other valuable information as a member of MSOS, please be sure to update your email address with us, whenever it changes. If you need assistance doing so, please send an email to jrufo@ismp.org

1 post / 0 new
Niloofar Alikashani
Niloofar Alikashani's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 weeks 5 days ago
Joined: 12/17/2014 - 17:11
Monitoring patients when administering IV phenytoin

Do you monitor EKG, BR & HR when patients are being administered IV phenytoin?

Continuous cardiac monitoring (rate, rhythm, BP) and observation during IV phenytoin administration and BP and pulse monitoring every 15 minutes for 1 hour after administration is recommended. Risk of cardiovascular toxicity increases with infusion rates above the recommended infusion rate of 50mg/min, these events have also been reported at or below the recommended infusion rate.