Forum for debate: Safety of allogeneic blood transfusion alternatives in the surgical/critically ill patient.

In recent years, several safety alerts have questioned or restricted the use of some pharmacological alternatives to allogeneic blood transfusion in established indications. In contrast, there seems to be a promotion of other alternatives, based on blood products and/or antifibrinolytic drugs, which lack a solid scientific basis. The Multidisciplinary Autotransfusion Study Group and the Anemia Working Group España convened a multidisciplinary panel of 23 experts belonging to different healthcare areas in a forum for debate to: 1) analyze the different safety alerts referred to certain transfusion alternatives; 2) study the background leading to such alternatives, the evidence supporting them, and their consequences for everyday clinical practice, and 3) issue a weighted statement on the safety of each questioned transfusion alternative, according to its clinical use.

[Quality of home medication collection in the Emergency Department: reconciliation discrepancies].

Introduction: The objective of the study was to assess home medication data collected at the Emergency Department in a tertiary hospital. It also aimed to identify whether any possible deficiencies in this collection were translated as reconciliation errors on admission, to analyse and classify these data and identify the pharmacological groups involved.

Method: A prospective observational study was carried out which analysed the pharmacotherapeutic data collected at the Emergency Department.

[Relationship between allogeneic blood transfusion, iron deficiency and nosocomial infection in patients with hip fracture].

Background And Objective: To know the frequency of nosocomial infection (NI) in surgical hip fracture patients and to analyze the risk factors that favor the NI development, especially its relationship with allogeneic blood transfusion (ABT) and intravenous iron administration.

Patients And Method: Unicenter prospective observational study of all hip fracture surgery patients during 8 months. The demographic, clinical and hematimetric differences between the infected and not infected patients were described.

[Use of specific drugs for Alzheimer's disease].

Objective: To evaluate the consumption evolution and financial impact of specific treatments for Alzheimer's disease (AD) in Aragon (Spain), analyzing consumption patterns and trends, and to estimate the proportion of AD patients treated with these drugs.

Methods: Descriptive study of outpatient utilization of cholinesterase inhibitors and memantine (1996-2004), obtained from the drug packages dispensed by community pharmacists through prescriptions charged to the National Health Service. According to the defined daily doses (DDD) and expenditure data available, data were expressed in DDD per 1,000 inhabitants per day (DHD), DDD per 1,000 inhabitants older than 64 (DHD65), first-last year increase (%), drug consumption pattern, annual cost per inhabitant and daily treatment cost (DTC).