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c/reconstitution·posted 28 days ago by u/emil_zamora

someone explain bacteriostatic water to me like I have not read a paper in years

Math Well Actually ×2

someone explain bacteriostatic water to me like I have not read a paper in years. I am not trying to be the "source?" guy. I would just like a source.

The lyophilised cake displaces a small volume, so the true concentration is very slightly lower than the arithmetic suggests. It is a fraction of a percent and it is dwarfed by fill tolerance.

Aim the stream down the wall of the vial rather than into the cake. Reconstitution is a solubility problem, not a mixing problem, and mechanical shear does nothing helpful.

If your calculation produces a fraction of a unit, the concentration is wrong for your dose. Change the water volume until the numbers land on whole units.

Sceptical readings welcome. The confident ones are the ones I distrust.

882 up / 158 down85% upvoted34 commentsid 15ijl32 Jul 2026

34 comments

15 in this archive, depth 5

best — the order this archive was captured in

u/honest_syringe_202553 points·26 days ago

Agreed on the swirl. There is no reason to shake it and a good reason not to.

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u/saskia_rahimi46 points·27 days ago

The arithmetic in full: concentration is mass over volume, so 10mg into 2mL gives 5mg/mL. A U-100 syringe is graduated at 100 units per millilitre, so 5mg is 5 divided by 5 millilitres, which is 100 units.

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u/vial_math_veraMOD23 points·27 days ago

Left up and flaired Explainer — the numbers in this one check out.

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u/arto_falk0 points·27 days ago

Correction: that gives 30 units, not what you have written. 5mg into 1mL is 5mg/mL and the division follows from there.

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u/emil_zamoraOP14 points·27 days ago·edited

The dead space question sent me down a rabbit hole for a week. It is a fraction of a unit and it is the same every draw.

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u/janek_ferrari20 points·27 days ago·edited

That is sterile water, not bacteriostatic. Same appearance, different product, and it matters for a multi-draw vial.

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u/lyophile_lou9 points·26 days ago

the powder cake sits at the bottom, the volume you add is the volume that counts

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u/declared_value_dv28 points·27 days ago

I keep a laminated card in the drawer with the arithmetic on it. Looks ridiculous. Has never once let me draw the wrong volume.

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u/ledger_modmod · vetting16 points·26 days ago

Not quite. Bacteriostatic and sterile water are not interchangeable for a multi-draw vial, and the difference is the preservative.

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u/emil_zamoraOP10 points·26 days ago·edited

twice as much water halves the concentration and doubles the units for the same dose

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u/rasmus_kuipers13 points·27 days ago

Started reconstituting everything to a round concentration and the six-in-the-morning error rate went to zero.

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u/iman_falk3 points·27 days ago

Bacteriostatic water contains benzyl alcohol as a preservative, which is what makes repeated entry into the same vial reasonable. Plain sterile water has no preservative.

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u/ines_ekstrom2 points·27 days ago

That only works if the fill weight is exactly the label weight, and it usually is not exactly anything.

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u/sleep_apnea_sam1 point·26 days ago

This. Showing the working is the fastest way for somebody else to spot the mistake.

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u/hub_opssite staff2 points·27 days ago

more water is not more drug, it is the same drug in a bigger volume

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About c/reconstitution

The arithmetic and the technique. Bacteriostatic versus sterile water, reconstitution volume as a concentration choice, converting mg/mL into insulin-syringe units, dead space, swirl-not-shake, stopper coring, and how long a reconstituted vial is actually good for. Math errors get corrected fast and politely.

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