Millilitre (mL)

A millilitre is a measure of liquid volume — one thousandth of a litre, and the same volume as one cubic centimetre.

Millilitres describe how much liquid there is, and say nothing at all about what is dissolved in it. A millilitre of plain water and a millilitre of a concentrated solution occupy identical space.

On a U-100 insulin syringe, one millilitre is the full 100-unit scale. That relationship is fixed and is a property of the syringe, not of anything you put in it.

For example

1 mL = 100 units on a U-100 syringe. 0.25 mL = 25 units. 0.5 mL = 50 units.

What it is not

A millilitre is not a dose, and it is not a milligram. Two people drawing 0.5 mL can be drawing very different amounts of compound if their solutions were made at different strengths.

Where this comes up: reconstitution, syringe-units

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