Fingolimod in multiple sclerosis: profile of use in habitual practice

OBJECTIVES

Fingolimod is the first oral drug indicated in monotherapy as a modifier of the course of very active relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). The safety profile of fingolimod is well established in clinical trials and post-marketing studies. Our objective was to study the profile of fingolimod use in our health area.

METHODS

A retrospective, observational, descriptive study was performed on the use of fingolimod in adult patients diagnosed with RRMS between January 2015 and February 2017 or until suspension of treatment in a reference hospital in north-western Spain.

RESULTS

A total of 55 patients were included with a mean±SD time of treatment with fingolimod of 26±14.6 months (range 2-53). Thirteen patients permanently discontinued the treatment (10 due to outbreaks/disease progression and 3 due to adverse effects). No statistically significant differences were found between the percentage of patients who discontinued fingolimod and who had received only one previous treatment and those who had received two or more treatments. No cases of symptomatic bradycardia were reported.

CONCLUSIONS

Fingolimod is a safe treatment for patients with multiple sclerosis.

[Increasing compliance with a surgical antibiotic prophylaxis protocol in the Urology Service.]

INTRODUCTION

Surgical site infectionis the most common nosocomial infection in Spain. Theuse of surgical antibiotic prophylaxis (SAP) in clinical practice is frequently inadequate, confirming the need to adopt prevention strategies for this kind of infections. In this sense, promoting actions to improve the SAP in order to reduce surgical site infections is an unavoidable commitment of every surgical department.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the adequacy of the PAQ after PAQ system implementation based on the use of prophylaxis protocols in compliance with the quality indicator sestablished in the Urology Department.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Retrospective observational study of the SAP of the surgical procedures performed in the Urology Service of a Spanish tertiary-level hospital. An intervention based on the introduction of the prophylaxis protocols was performed. Each prophylaxis kit contains sufficient antibiotic doses to perform an adequate PAQ with a registration form where the administration of doses is recorded. A period of pre-intervention (2005-2010) and post-intervention (2012-2017) were established  and the differences in the values were determined in the following six quality indicators: indication of SAP (indicated and administered prophylaxis), antibiotic selection (according to established protocol), dose and route of administration (therapeutic dose and intravenous route), time of administration of the first dose (between15 min and 1 hour before the surgical incision), intraoperative dose (necessary if the surgery is prolonged more than twice the half-life of the antibiotic or there is significant bleeding) and duration (not to exceed 24 hours).

RESULTS

Compliance with the selection of the antibiotic,the time of administration of the first dose, the duration of prophylaxis and the overall adequacy of the SAP increased after the introduction of prophylaxis protocols (p <0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

The use of prophylaxis protocols promotes an adequate SAP as it facilitates the appropriate antibiotic selection (active substance, dose and route) and helps to prevent SAP from being unnecessarily prolonged.

[Impact of introducing assisted electronic prescription on paediatric patient safety]

OBJECTIVE

There have been very few studies on the effect of assisted electronic prescription on paediatric patient safety. The objective of this study is to compare medication errors that occurred before and after its introduction in a tertiary hospital.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

A quasi-experimental comparative study of medication errors detected before and after assisted electronic prescription introduction. All treatment lines were analysed in order to detect the point in the chain where the medication error occurred, as well as its type and cause. A Delphi study was conducted on the importance of each medication error involving doctors, nurses, and pharmacists.

RESULTS

The study included 166 patients (83 at each stage). At least one medication error was detected in 92% in the pre-introduction phase patients (2.8±2.1 errors/patient) and 7.2% of post-introduction phase patients (0.1±0.4 errors/patient). The assisted electronic prescription led to an absolute risk reduction of 40% (95% confidence interval=35.6-44.4%). The main cause of error was lapses and carelessness in both stages. Medication errors were considered serious in 9.5% of cases in the pre-introduction phase, while all of them were mild or moderate in the post-introduction phase.

CONCLUSIONS

The assisted electronic prescription implementation with prescription, validation and medication administration assistance systems significantly reduces medication errors and eliminates serious errors.