ABSTRACT
Since attention is sometimes required with regard to the use and handling of external medications or injection drugs in drug therapy, patients may have a feeling of “inconvenience”. We, therefore, focused on a feeling of “inconvenience when using” external medications and injection drugs, and conducted a questionnaire survey to investigate the level of awareness and current status of using assist devices that can effectively reduce such inconvenience. The survey took place at a pharmacy, and involved interviews using a questionnaire. Of the 197 respondents, valid responses were obtained from 147 individuals (74.6%). As the results, 25.9% of individuals using external medications or injection drugs responded ‘yes’ concerning the feeling of “inconvenience when using” them. In addition, 39.4% of individuals using eye drops and 10.5% of those using insulin similarly responded. However, only 10.9% knew of the availability of assist devices that are expected to reduce the inconvenience. The results revealed that a certain number of people feel the “inconvenience” of external dosage forms investigated in this study, suggesting the need for pharmacists to consider that patients may have problems using their medications, and to recommend and support the use of assist devices that can be operated by patients.
ABSTRACT
Since attention is sometimes required with regard to the use and handling of external medications or injection drugs in drug therapy, patients may have a feeling of “inconvenience”. We, therefore, focused on a feeling of “inconvenience when using” external medications and injection drugs, and conducted a questionnaire survey to investigate the level of awareness and current status of using assist devices that can effectively reduce such inconvenience. The survey took place at a pharmacy, and involved interviews using a questionnaire. Of the 197 respondents, valid responses were obtained from 147 individuals (74.6%). As the results, 25.9% of individuals using external medications or injection drugs responded ‘yes’ concerning the feeling of “inconvenience when using” them. In addition, 39.4% of individuals using eye drops and 10.5% of those using insulin similarly responded. However, only 10.9% knew of the availability of assist devices that are expected to reduce the inconvenience. The results revealed that a certain number of people feel the “inconvenience” of external dosage forms investigated in this study, suggesting the need for pharmacists to consider that patients may have problems using their medications, and to recommend and support the use of assist devices that can be operated by patients.
ABSTRACT
The genus Alternaria contains several species of melanized hypomycetes that cause opportunistic human infections. The most frequent clinical manifestations of alternariosis are cutaneous and subcutaneous infections, followed by oculomycosis, invasive and non-invasive rhinosinusitis, and onychomycosis. So far, only 17 cases of rhinosinusitis caused by Alternaria species have been reported since 1977. Although several domestic cases of cutaneous alternariosis have been reported, there is no report of Alternaria rhinosinusitis in Korea. The majority of Alternaria rhinosinusitis involves immunocompromised patients. We report the first case of alternariosis in a patient with neutropenia and myelodysplastic syndrome that was treated with endoscopic debridement and a conventional antifungal agent.