Routes of Drug Administration
In the series of free medical transcription course online our new addition of lesson today is about the ways of drug or medicine administration in human. Though we take pills or tabs or tubes via orally, it is one among some routes of drug administration to cure any disease or symptom control in a human body.
The other routes of ways of administration is done not by the patient himself as in oral administration method. The other ways of drug administration are tried when the patient is unable to administer via oral route or the drug may not be able to administer via mouth of the patient or the medicine may get good effects when tried in other ways of administration etc.,
The other routes of medicine administration other than oral route are inhalational or nasal administration, tracheal, intramuscular, subcutaneous, intravenous, and intra-articular. Now, we will see the meaning and the importance of these methods of medicine administration one by one.
Inhalational or nasal administration: The route of administration of some drugs via nostrils or nose holes is known as Inhalational administration. Some respiratory disease symptom control nasal decongestant drugs are administrated via nostrils. Nasal sprays are also used to treat migraine headaches and hormone replacement treatment etc.,
Tracheal Administration: Tracheal route administration is mainly used in giving oxygen support to the patients who are bed bound and in coma stage. Endotracheal route is used to administer food and medicines to the patients. Endotracheal tubes made up of mostly of polyvinyl chloride are used for this purpose.
Intramuscular: In this method of administration of medicine in small amounts can be administered using an injection via the muscle. Some of the important intramuscular sites of injections are in the muscles of deltoid (upper arm), dorsogluteal (upper buttocks area), rectus femoris (quadriceps muscle), ventrogluteal (hip), and vastus lateralis (thigh region especially for injecting in children).
Subcutaneous: This is an important method of administration of drug via under the skin route. Any selected medicine is administered in the fat layer of tissue between the skin and muscle. In the subcutaneous method the medicine is grasped slower than in the other method called intravenous (we will see intravenous next).
Intravenous: This method is comparatively faster and effective way of administration of a medicine than the subcutaneous and commonly used by healthcare professionals to give a drug to the patients. To give speed effect of any medicine this route of administration is taken hand by healthcare professionals. As the word suggests any medicine is administered into the vein using an injection. Generally, the vein near the elbow or the posterior part of hand or any other vein can also be used in intravenous method of medicine administration.
Intra-articular: This method is also used in administering a medicine using an injection, but specifically used in treating patients with joint infections especially to lessen the joint pains. So, intra-articular means within a joint. Any site near the painful joint can be injected using this method.
In the next post, we will study more about Routes of Administration of a medicine in more detail. Okay.
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