The Annals of pharmacotherapy
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Acute bleeding due to esophageal varices continues to be a life-threatening complication of liver disease. Despite the availability of improved therapy, mortality continues to be high. Octreotide has been shown to be at least as effective as vasopressin in the treatment of bleeding varices, with fewer and less severe systemic adverse effects. ⋯ Since these trials have used small numbers of patients, the ability to detect small but clinically important differences has been limited. Additional controlled trials comparing octreotide with the combination of vasopressin and nitroglycerin are needed to more clearly determine the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of therapy. Furthermore, the optimal dosage, duration, and route of administration of octreotide in the treatment of bleeding esophageal varices has yet to be determined.
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To review and compare the risks of nonnarcotic analgesic toxicities in adults and estimate the relative healthcare costs of these toxicities, since direct comparison of costs is not possible. ⋯ Intermittent use of most nonnarcotic analgesics produces a small risk of chronic renal or hepatic toxicity. Gastrointestinal toxicity, especially upper gastrointestinal bleeding, remains a significant problem with NSAIDs and aspirin. Acetaminophen remains the nonnarcotic analgesic of choice for intermittent use by most patient groups. The toxicities associated with NSAIDs constitute about 72.6% of the total toxicities (costs $1.86 billion) caused by NSAIDs, acetaminophen, and aspirin.
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To report a case of venlafaxine overdose. ⋯ The venlafaxine overdose in our patient resulted in a single episode of generalized seizure but elicited no further sequelae.
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To solicit practitioner-perceived opinions regarding current sedative/analgesic/paralytic practice including drug selection, admixture methods, and methods of assessing patient response to therapy via surgery tool; and to assess sedative/pain/paralytic drug use patterns including dosage, route selection, and combination therapy by collecting actual drug administration data from multiple centers. ⋯ Patients received these agents during the majority of their ICU stay. Multicenter drug use data suggested a preference for opiate and benzodiazepine therapy. Many centers used continuous infusion therapy despite minimal pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic information on ICU patients. Further studies are needed to standardize end points, as well as obtain both pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic and stability data in ICU patients.
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To report a possible case of serotonin syndrome associated with coadministration of tramadol hydrochloride and sertraline hydrochloride. ⋯ Clinicians should be aware of the potential for serotonin syndrome with concomitant administration of sertraline and tramadol.