Scientific Research -1974 January

Some pharmaceutical products are so simple in composition that it appears anybody can make them. One such group of preparations are the intravenous fluids. After being told that normal saline contains 0.9 percent w/v Sodium Chloride there is the temptation for the nurse, the assistant in the dispensary or the medical practitioner to think that he can make normal saline injection himself therefore does not see the need for or importance of the pharmacist. It may be relatively easy for anybody to prepare say 100 ml of normal saline injection but when it comes to preparing fairly large quantities e.g. 100L of the same solution, as one may well do in a busy hospital dispensary, the associated problems become so complex that only a well-trained pharmacist can handle them.

In this case, it would be necessary to evolve a procedure which ensures effective dissolution and mixing making use of the apparatus and facilities available. It would also involve testing the solution for homogeneity. Various methods of distributing the solution into the final containers and handling the containers will have to be examined and assessed to determine which is most efficient in use of equipment, space, manpower and time bearing in mind the accuracy and/or quality required in the preparation.

Having established a routine effort should be made to ensure its continuing efficiency and faithfulness with which it is followed by the operators.

© The Author(s) 1974. Published by the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana (PSGH). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.