Yes, if you haven’t heard yet, that over the counter acetaminophen in a bottle you have in your medicine cabinet, is now available as an intravenous infusion .
Just like its oral counterpart, IV acetaminophen has proven to be effective in reducing fever, and improves pain management. One article states that in post operative patients, IV acetaminophen can be integrated into a multimodal analgesia regimen and can also improve outcomes by reducing the amount of opoids required for pain control. Click here for full article.
I’m sure that I’m not the only one who, at some point in the past, as I took gobs of acetaminophen for just about any aches and pain, often wished it would come in an IV version. Well, now it is….but unlike the over the counter version…this one needs a prescription and an IV set-up.
Infusion Nurse Blog 
Thanks a lot for sharing this. I was having no idea about this. Seems very helpful in pain.
Hi Cora,
Greetings from Australia. Thanks for the blog. I have been a reader for years and have always enjoyed it.
This entry surprised me somewhat. We have had IV acetaminophen in Australia for years. We call it IV paracetamol. I cannot believe you just got it in the US! Is your workplace been hiding something from you or what? It would not surprise me though as it is prohibitively expensive compared to the the oral and PR forms. I know for a fact that the head of pharmacy in my hospital refused to supply it a few years ago on the grounds that “if they have a mouth or a rectum they (the patients) do not need IV paracetamol.” Supportive huh?
As a haematology nurse, however, IV acetaminophen is vital to our patient care. There are times when neutropaenic patients are febrile and desperately need something to bring down the fever. Severe mucositis can limit oral intake – ruling out tablets or even the soluble forms. The risk of bleeding due to chemotherapy induced thrombocytopenia also rules out the use of a PR dose. IV acetaminophen is therefore a welcome alternative when your febrile neutropaenic patient is rigoring with a temperature of 40C!!!!
Thanks again for the blog.
Best wishes
Rick
http://www.critcare-reflectionsofamalenurse.blogspot.com
IV acetaminophen was approved about two years ago now here in the US and as you said, is more expensive than its PO version or even Morphine. Now that it is used more often since its approval, there are more publications on its effective use in pain management.
Thanks for your reply and I am so honored to have you as a blog reader.
Warmest regards,
Cora
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