Hair repigmentation associated with thalidomide use for the treatment of multiple myeloma.

A 75-year-old woman diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2007 began treatment with monthly melphalan and prednisone for a total of 9 cycles in combination with thalidomide in 2009. The patient subsequently continued on thalidomide for long-term maintenance therapy. 3 years following initiation of thalidomide, the patient mentioned to her oncologist that her hair had become darker over the years.

A needs assessment study of hospital pharmacy residency preceptors.

Background: Canadian pharmacy residency programs rely on preceptors to support the growing demand of graduates wishing to pursue hospital residencies. Understanding the educational needs of these preceptors is important to ensure that they are well prepared to deliver successful programs.

Objective: To determine what new and experienced residency preceptors self-identify as learning needs in order to become more effective preceptors for pharmacy residents.

Errors Associated with IV Infusions in Critical Care.

Background: All medication errors are serious, but those associated with the IV route of administration often result in the most severe outcomes. According to the literature, IV medications are associated with 54% of potential adverse events, and 56% of medication errors.

Objectives: To determine the type and frequency of errors associated with prescribing, documenting, and administering IV infusions, and to also determine if a correlation exists between the incidence of errors and either the time of day (day versus night) or the day of the week (weekday versus weekend) in an academic medicosurgical intensive care unit without computerized order entry or documentation.

Regional citrate anticoagulation for PrismaFlex continuous renal replacement therapy.

Background: Since Mehta et al. reported the first successful use of regional citrate anticoagulation (RCA) for continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) in 1990, RCA is increasingly used for CRRT because it provides filter patency with minimal risk of bleeding. However, RCA has been associated with significant metabolic complications including hypocalcemia, hypernatremia, metabolic alkalosis, and citrate toxicity.