kilogram
Meaning of kilogram: A kilogram is the standard metric unit of body weight in medicine, central to accurate weight based drug dosing calculations.
Definition of kilogram
A kilogram is the base unit of mass in the metric system, equal to one thousand grams, and is the standard unit used throughout medicine to record a person's body weight and to calculate weight-based drug doses. Many medications, particularly in pediatric care and certain specialized treatments, are dosed according to a person's weight in kilograms rather than as a single fixed amount for everyone.
Because everyday conversation in some countries uses pounds rather than kilograms, converting between the two units is a routine part of recording weight accurately in a medical setting, and the kilogram itself is now defined in terms of a fixed physical constant rather than a physical reference object, keeping the unit precisely consistent.
Because weight-based dosing calculations depend on an accurate starting weight in kilograms, an error in converting between pounds and kilograms is a recognized source of medication dosing mistakes.
Used in a sentence
The medication dose was calculated based on the patient's weight in kilograms.
Good to know
Confusing a person's weight in pounds with kilograms, or the reverse, is a recognized source of medication dosing errors, since many drug doses are calculated per kilogram of body weight.
Word origin
Where “kilogram” comes from
Formed from Greek khilioi, meaning thousand, and gramma, meaning a small weight, since a kilogram equals one thousand grams.