5 This coadministration occurs when mixing drugs in a 1:1 ratio and in the absence of visible signs of incompatibility like precipitation or change in color.

The Y-site infusion of 2 drugs requires both drugs to be physically compatible. The mix of incompatible drugs is a medication error that can have serious consequences for the patient such as therapeutic failures, micro-embolism or toxicity. This means that different drugs are delivered using the same route of administration, which increases the risks involved when mixing incompatible drugs. Critically ill patients often have limited venous accesses. The combination of these risk factors increases the chances of making mistakes in the most vulnerable patients due to their severity. Although it is an important advance with regard to safety, the use of intelligent infusion pumps has been associated with an important number or medication errors due to programming issues. Another factor is the prescription of doses in different units of measurement or the high number of drugs used with each patient. 2 Even so, medication errors are common in ICUs and require care from healthcare providers to minimize them.Įrrors in the administration of drugs in ICUs are due to several factors: the use of high-risk drugs (vasoactive drugs, inotropes, sedatives, etc.) often administered in low doses due to their high drug strength, requiring dilution and a prior assessment to their administration. in a study conducted among Spanish hospital ICUs are a little better (1.13 medication errors for every 100 patients/day). 1 On the other hand, the data reported by Merino et al. there is an average 1.7 errors/day associated with the process of drug administration in the ICU setting. Vasoactive drugs, analgesics, and sedatives are among the most widely used therapeutic groups and are usually administered in continuous infusion.Īccording to the systematic review conducted by Moyen et al. Patients admitted to intensive care units (ICU) often require the IV administration of several drugs. Se proporciona una actualización de las compatibilidades entre los fármacos habitualmente empleados en las UCI, con la intención de contribuir a la administración segura de medicamentos en pacientes críticos. La tabla final aporta datos de compatibilidad fisicoquímica de 475 de las 945 combinaciones posibles (50,3%), de las cuales 366 (77,1%) son compatibles y 80 (16,8%) son incompatibles. Ningún estudio cumplió todos los criterios de calidad establecidos, aunque el 93% garantizaba una correcta reproducibilidad. La revisión sistemática incluyó 29 artículos (27 originales y 2 revisiones). UCI de hospitales españoles e internacionales. Se incluyeron los estudios publicados entre 1990 y 2017 redactados en inglés, español y francés 2) se analizó la calidad de los artículos según los criterios indicados en las guías de práctica para estudios de estabilidad 3) se construyó una tabla de compatibilidades con los datos hallados para las combinaciones binarias de 44 fármacos de uso frecuente en unidades de cuidados intensivos (UCI). Diseñoġ) Se realizó una búsqueda sistemática en las bases de datos Medline, Stabilis, Handbook on Injectable Drugs y Micromedex, para completar y actualizar la información disponible. Recopilar la información publicada sobre estabilidad de los fármacos usados en el paciente crítico, evaluar la calidad de los datos publicados y generar una tabla de compatibilidad con información actualizada. The study contributes to the safe administration of intravenous drugs in critical patients with a view to avoiding adverse events in this frail population. This review provides new reliable evidence about the physicochemical stability of drugs commonly used in the critical care setting. Accordingly, drug stability knowledge was available for 50.3% of the studied admixtures, in which 77.1% of the binary combinations proved compatible and 16.8% proved incompatible. However, 93% guaranteed correct reproducibility. None of the included studies followed all the methodological requirements. The systematic review included 29 studies (27 originals, 2 reviews). (iii) A compatibility table was produced with data for 44 binary combinations of drugs frequently used in the ICU. (ii) Article quality was analyzed according to the stability studies practice guidelines. Articles published from 1990 to 2017 in English, Spanish and French were included. (i) A systematic review was conducted searching the following databases: Medline, Stabilis, Handbook of Injectable Drugs and Micromedex. To gather all published information about the stability of drugs commonly used in Intensive Care Units (ICU) evaluate the methodology of published data and generate a compatibility table.

Levophed drip