European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

EVALUATION OF ADMIXTURE COMPATIBILITY OF INTRAVENOUS INFUSIONS IN PEDIATRIC DEPARTMENT

A. S. Manjula Devi*, Aswathy Radhakrishnan, Chandini Jose, Daya Baby and Divya Mary Mathews

ABSTRACT

Incompatibilities became an issue of concern, especially in pediatric units, because of the large fraction of parenteral drug applications as intravenous infusions, the need for constant drug concentrations and the limited number of independent IV lines in pediatric patients. The objective of the study is to identify the most frequent and clinically significant incompatibilities of intravenous admixtures in the pediatric department and to prepare a two dimensional compatibility chart for the most commonly used intravenous infusions in the pediatric department. It is a Prospective observational study conducted in Pediatric department of a 750 bedded multispecialty tertiary care teaching hospital which include the pediatric ward and pediatric ICU for a duration of 8 months. The medication charts of 50 consecutive patients admitted to the pediatric department and treated with continuous intravenous infusions were analyzed. The pH of the formulation, diluents and other physiochemical properties of both drug and infusion fluids were also recorded. Drug concentrations and duration of drug stability after dilution were recorded and carefully evaluated. Compatibility of the selected drugs with the diluent or a second drug when given together was then analyzed. The study reviewed the most frequent and clinically significant incompatibilities of intravenous admixtures in the pediatric department and a two-dimensional compatibility chart was prepared.

Keywords: Admixture, compatibility, intravenous, infusions, pediatric.