Liver cirrhosis, which is considered one of the leading causes of death in the world, can lead to severe complications, and is often followed by a liver transplantation. These patients take an average of nine medications daily. If not managed adequately, it can be accompanied by serious drug-related problems.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTelepharmacy is used to bridge the persisting shortage of specialist ward-based pharmacists, particularly in intensive care units (ICU). During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), pharmacotherapy was rapidly developed, which resulted in multiple changes of guidelines. This potentially led to a differing risk for drug-related problems (DRPs) in ICUs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPaediatric patients are more vulnerable to be harmed by medication errors compared to adults due to pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic changes in their development, individual dosing calculations, and manipulation of ready to-use products intended for adult patients. According to the Institute of Safe Medication Practices, there are some "drugs that bear a heightened risk of causing significant patient harm when they are used in error"; these drugs are called high-alert medications (HAM). The two-step survey among paediatric clinical expert pharmacists presented here aimed to compile a nation-wide HAM list.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPatients in intensive care units (ICUs) are at high risk of drug-drug interactions (DDIs) due to polypharmacy. Little is known about type and frequency of DDIs within German ICUs. Clinical pharmacists' interventions (PI) recorded in a national database (ADKA-DokuPIK) were filtered for ICU patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNon-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) are beneficial in surgical settings, they may however lead to adverse drug reactions including decreased renal function, a risk, which is exacerbated by combination with other nephrotoxics, and particularly when NSAIDs are given as part of a so-called 'Triple Whammy' (TW) with diuretics and renin-angiotensin system blockers. The objective of this study was to identify the prevalence of TW-prescriptions in a surgical inpatient setting and to document the changes in renal function after pharmacist recommendations. A prospective, observational single centre pilot study was performed using a series of eleven weekly Point-Prevalence Analyses (PPA).
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