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In medicine, abolus (fromLatinbolus, ball) is the administration of a discrete amount ofmedication,drug, or other compound within a specific time, generally 1–30 minutes,[1] to raise its concentration inblood to aneffective level. The administration can be given byinjection:intravenously,intramuscularly,intrathecally,subcutaneously, or byinhalation.[clarification needed] The article onroutes of administration provides more information, as the preceding list of ROAs is not exhaustive.
The placement of the bolus dose depends on the systemic levels of the contents desired throughout the body. An intramuscular injection ofvaccines allows for a slow release of the antigen to stimulate the body'simmune system and to allow time for developingantibodies. Subcutaneous injections are used byheroin addicts (called 'skin popping', referring to the bump formed by the bolus of heroin), to sustain a slow release that staves offwithdrawal symptoms without producingeuphoria.[2]
A bolus delivered directly to the veins through anintravenous drip allows a much faster delivery which quickly raises the concentration of the substance in the blood to an effective level. This is typically done at the beginning of a treatment or after a removal of medicine from blood (e.g. throughdialysis).
Diabetics and health care professionals use bolus to refer to a dosage of fast-actinginsulin with a meal (as opposed tobasal rate, which is a dose of slow-acting insulin or the continuous pumping of a small quantity of fast-acting insulin to cover theglucose output of theliver).[3]
Inveterinary medicine abolus is a large time-release tablet that stays in therumen ofcattle,goats, andsheep. It can also refer to a dose of liquid injectedsubcutaneously with ahypodermic needle, such assaline solution administered either to counteractdehydration or especially to mitigatekidney failure, a common ailment indomestic cats. Before it is fully absorbed, which can take several minutes or longer, the liquid remains in the form of abolus, a ball or lump under the animal'sskin.
Inradiation therapy, bolus is a waxy tissue equivalent material placed on the skin surface to homogenize or modulate the range of the dose from external beams of radiation.
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