An intravenous sugar solution is a solution with a sugar (usually glucose, a.k.a. dextrose, with water as the solvent) used for intravenous therapy, where it may function both as a means of maintaining tissue hydration and a means of parenteral nutrition.

Types of glucose/dextrose include:

• D5W (5% dextrose in water), which consists of 278 mmol/L dextrose
• D5NS (5% dextrose in normal saline), which, in addition, contains normal saline (0.90% w/v of NaCl).
  • D5 1/2NS (5% dextrose in half amount of normal saline (0.45% w/v of NaCl).^[1]

The percentage is a mass percentage, so a 5% glucose/dextrose solution contains 50 mg/ml of glucose/dextrose (Quite simply, 5% dextrose means the solution contains 5g/100ml of solution).

Glucose provides energy 4 kcal/gram, so a 5% glucose solution provides 0.2 kcal/ml. If prepared from dextrose monohydrate, which provides 3.4 kcal/gram, a 5% solution provides 0.17 kcal/ml.^[2]

Administering a 5% sugar solution peri- and postoperatively usually achieves a good balance between starvation reactions and hyperglycemia caused by sympathetic activation. A 10% solution may be more appropriate when the stress response from the reaction has decreased, after approximately one day after surgery. After more than approximately 2 days, a more complete regimen of total parenteral nutrition is indicated.

In patients with hypernatremia and euvolemia, free water can be replaced using either 5% D/W or 0.45% saline.

• Parenteral nutrition

Template:Intravenous therapy