1. Distribution
Team Haberman
Greg Dane
Amanda Haberman
Whitney Joseph/Woods
Lauren Hinchey

2. Distribution
 Today we are only focusing on distribution
of drugs and why a nurse should know this
 The analogy of highways will be used to
help explain difficult ideas
Site of Action

3. Distribution
 Distribution is the
movement of drugs
throughout the human
body
 The way drugs travel is
through the blood of
the vascular system

4. The Vascular System

5. Blood Flow to Tissues
VS.

6. Exiting the Vascular System
 Once drugs have
left the vascular
system, they must
pass between
capillary cells

7. Site of Action
 Some drugs must
enter the cell to
reach the site of
action
 Other drugs
interact with
receptors on the
outside of the cell

8. Stop and Think!
 Understanding distribution is
an important factor to
nursing, you must be able to
determine if a drug can
reach it’s target
 What about the young,
elderly and pregnant?

9. Blood-Brain Barrier
 A blood-brain barrier (BBB) refers to the structure of
capillaries in the central nervous system
 The BBB is a major site of blood to central nervous
system exchange
 Tight junctions, between cells that make up the
walls of most capillaries, keep drugs from passing
through
 Drugs must be lipid-soluble or have a transporter to
cross the BBB
 Some drugs dissolve directly into the membrane

10. Some drugs are not able to
enter through the blood-brain
barrier!

11. Placental Drug Transfer
 Membranes of the
placenta keep circulation
of mother and fetus
separate, however it is not
an absolute barrier
 Drugs that pass the
placenta can cause
significant birth defects

12. Protein Binding
 Drugs most often form
reversible bonds with
proteins in the body
 Protein Albumin is the most
common, it makes up 50-
75% of blood proteins
 Because Albumin cannot
leave the bloodstream, it
restricts bound drugs from
reaching their sites of

13. Patient Safety

14. Sources
Abbot, N. J. (2009). Structure and Function
of the Blood-Brain Barrier. Medline.
<http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19664713.
ESRD Network of New England.
<networkofnewengland.org/albfac.pdf.
Lehne, R. A. (2013). Pharmacology for
Nursing Care 8th ed. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Inc.
Pharmacokinetics: Distribution. <http://psych.
fullerton.edu/mwhite/475pdf475
Pharmacokinetics-Distribution.pdf.