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ROUTES OF ADMINISTRATIONS

The routes of administration is determined primarily by the properties of the drug for (example water or lipid solubility etc) and by the therapeutic objective (e.g desirability for rapid onset). There are two major routes of administration enteral and parenteral.

1. ENTERAL:- These are drug administered directly into the Gastro-Intestine tract e.g oral, sublingual (under the tongue)

2. PARENTERAL:- This route introduces drugs directly into the systemic circulation or other vascular tissue. Any route of administration other than the oral route is call parenteral e.g Intravenous (IV), Intramuscular (IM), Subcutaneous (SC), Intrathecal (IT).

Others are

• Topical 

• Rectal 

• Intranasal/Inhalational

• Transdermal

DRUG DOSAGING

Drug doses are usually expressed in relation to body weight of the patient e.g 10mg/kg means giving 10mg of a drug to each kg of patient’s body weight. Therefore a 20kg patient will get 20 x 10 = 200mg of a drug.