• B Charpiat, P Bedouch, F X Rose, M Juste, R Roubille, O Conort, and B Allenet.
• CNRS, TIMC-IMAG UMR 5525, Themas, Joseph-Fourier University, Grenoble 1, Domaine de la Merci, 38706 La Tronche cedex, France; Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Croix-Rousse Hospital, Hospices Civils de Lyon, 103, Grande-rue-de-la-Croix-Rousse, 69317 Lyon cedex 04, France. Electronic address: bruno.charpiat@chu-lyon.fr.
• Ann Pharm Fr. 2013 Nov 1; 71 (6): 410-7.

IntroductionLittle is known about the manner in which hospital pharmacists intervene for overdosed paracetamol prescriptions. The aim of this retrospective study was to describe the number and nature of pharmacists' interventions (PIs) for overdosed paracetamol adult prescriptions in hospitals.MethodsWe studied PIs that had been documented by pharmacists on the French Society of Clinical Pharmacy website tool between 2007 and 2010. We identified PIs that were related to paracetamol-containing prescriptions of one brand name only (type 1) particularly for patients with body weight ≤ 50 kg who were prescribed 4 g/day, and PIs that concerned the co-prescription of two paracetamol-containing products (type 2).ResultsAmong 60 hospitals, seven did not report any paracetamol overdose-related PIs. Of the 53 hospitals that had at least one PI, 16 did not report any type 1 PIs. Bodyweight, liver disease, cirrhosis and chronic alcoholism were absent recorded criterion by most of the hospitals included in this study.DiscussionPreviously published studies have highlighted that the most frequent PIs are type 1, especially for patients whose body weight is ≤ 50 kg. We observed a broad variability in the number or type of PI that were related to overdosed paracetamol prescriptions compared with the total of all recorded types of PI. These data suggest that a significant number of hospital pharmacists are unaware of the risks that adult patients with low body weight are exposed to when receiving four grams paracetamol/day over several days.ConclusionPharmacist educational programs are needed.Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.

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