Iran J Pharm Res
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Medication errors have important effects on increased length of hospitalization, increased mortality and costs. We assessed the incidence of medication errors and characterize the error types in an emergency department in a large teaching hospital in Tehran. We also investigated the effect of Emergency Department pharmacists on patient safety with regard to recovery of potentially harmful medication errors. ⋯ Seventy four point nine percent of errors were recorded as definitely an error. Most recorded errors were made by nurses (44.5%) and occurred in administrating stage (63.6%). Given that the rate of the errors was relatively high, it seems that the presence of clinical pharmacist can be beneficial.
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Severe sepsis and septic shock are major problems as the result of high rates morbidity and mortality in intensive care units (ICUs). In the presence of septic shock, each hour of delay in the administration of effective antibiotics is associated with a measurable increase in mortality. ⋯ Volume of distribution (Vd) and clearance (CL) of aminoglycosides in critically ill patients differs from general population and these parameters change considerably during the therapy. Pathophysiological changes during the sepsis alter the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profile of many drugs (increase in Vd and variable changes in CL have been reported for aminoglycosides during the sepsis), therefore, dosing regimen optimization is necessary for achieving therapeutic goal, and critically ill patients should receive larger loading doses of aminoglycosides in order to achieve therapeutic blood levels and due to the considerable variation in kinetic parameters, the use of standard doses of aminoglycosides or dosing nomograms is not recommended in these populations.
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The development of combination therapy is a coherent approach in severe pain treatment. The present study investigated the antinociceptive effect of pregabalin alone and in combination with tramadol in acute pain modeling. Therefore, three groups of male mice received either pregabalin (1 to 400 mg/Kg), tramadol (10 to 80 mg/Kg) or their combination intraperitoneally. ⋯ The increase in analgesic effect was observed after the combination of low analgesic doses of tramadol with pregabalin, while the combination of non-analgesic doses of each drug reversed the interaction to antagonism. Therefore to increase the analgesic effect in pain management, more attention should be paid to respecting right proportion of drug combination. Further studies that specify the mechanism(s) and statement of interaction are needed to expand these findings to clinical applications.
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Postpartum hemorrhage is an important cause of maternal morbidity and mortality after delivery. Active management of postpartum hemorrhage by an uterotonic drug decreases the rate of postpartum hemorrhage. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of rectal misoprostol for prevention of postpartum hemorrhage. ⋯ Decrease in hematocrite was significantly more observed in oxytocin group than misoprostol group (mean decrease of hematocrite was 1.3 ± 1.6 in misoprostol group and 1.6 ± 2.2 in oxytocin group). Two groups were similar in terms of side-effects. Rectal misoprostol as an uterotonic drug can decrease postpartum hemorrhage and also can prevent from decrease of hemoglobin as compared to oxytocin.
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There is possibility of microbial contamination of any single-dose vials (SDVs), multiple-dose vials (MDVs) and admixtures (ADXs) during the preparation and injection to the patients that could be resulted in bloodstream infection. The goal of this study was to investigate the microbial contamination of MDVs and SDVs after multiple use and ADXs prepared by nursing staff in the treatment room versus those prepared by the hospital pharmacist in the clean room. ⋯ Only one of 92 ADXs prepared in treatment room was contaminated with Bacillus subtilis (%1.1) and none of the ADXs prepared in clean room, MDVs and SDVs had microbial contamination. Although good sanitization practices and training of nurses could reduce the risk of microbial contamination in traditional units, using clean room for preparation of parenteral products could be the best strategy.