ABSTRACT
Patients with Behçet disease often develop postoperative valve detachment and pseudoaneurysm as a potentially fatal complication following aortic valve surgery, necessitating re-operation in a few cases. A 37-year-old man underwent 5 aortic valve and aortic root surgeries for the management of valve detachment after initial aortic valve replacement. Evaluation during the course of his disease revealed incomplete Behçet disease. He presented with high fever and Staphylococcus epidermidis bacteremia during the introduction of immunosuppressive therapy with infliximab. Contrast computed tomography revealed a pseudoaneurysm around the aortic root, and an aortic root replacement was performed using an aortic homograft after administration of a 6-week course of vancomycin. The patient is being observed at our outpatient clinic and has demonstrated no complications after 5 years from his last surgery.
ABSTRACT
PREAVOID is pharmaceutical intervention that is utilized to illustrate pharmacists’ contributions to medical care. Currently, there is a great need for pharmacists to provide good medical services to inpatients; as a result, many pharmacists conduct pharmaceutical management in hospital wards. However, pharmacists who have limited experience in working in the ward do not know exactly what they should check with respect to pharmaceutical management. To resolve this problem, we determined 16 pharmaceutical-management items based on PREAVOID that was conducted at Nagara Medical Center. Moreover, we conducted a pre-questionnaire survey assessing whether pharmacists who had worked in the ward for fewer than 4 years attended to these 16 check items in their daily work prior to our introducing the list to them. The results indicated that pharmacists who had fewer than 2 years of experience working in wards attended to the 16 check items less than those who had more than 2 years of experience, and approximately half of the pharmacists had not received adequate guidance before beginning work at the ward. In addition, most pharmacists indicated that clear check points were useful for conducting pharmaceutical management and the 16 check items were useful for their daily work. These results indicate that the 16 check items are a useful educational tool for enabling pharmacists to conduct high quality pharmaceutical management from the initial stage and that using the 16 check items is superior to pharmacists only gaining this ability via prolonged experience working in the ward.
ABSTRACT
Nagara Medical Center introduced two computer systems that utilized data imputed into electronic medical records. The first system was used to check cancer chemotherapy prescriptions, whereas the second system was a preparation support system that facilitates precise mixing of anticancer drugs.<br> The prescription checking system made it possible to easily monitor the dose of anticancer drugs and dosing intervals utilizing data imputed into electronic medical records. Using this system, the time required for checking was reduced significantly compared to without using the system.<br> The preparation support system enables converting the dose of anticancer drugs that imputed into electronic medical records to the prepared amount automatically and checking of the amounts of drugs for drug preparations. Drugs are checked by reading a bar code attached to a vial or ampule in order to check prepared drugs are correct. The prepared amount of drug is checked by measuring the weight of a syringe used in preparation before and after preparation. Using the preparation support system, the preparation time required was prolonged significantly compared to that without using the system. However, questionnaire survey revealed that prolonged time was in the allowable range to ensure safety.<br> In conclusion, it is considered that the prescription checking system introduced efficient checking of prescriptions, and that the preparation support system introduced an improvement in the accuracy of preparation.
ABSTRACT
<b>Purpose</b>: We conducted a group seminar for lung cancer patients. The purpose of the group seminar was to eliminate the negative notions about opioids and to impart the right knowledge about these drugs. Further, we investigated the notions about opioids and the effectiveness of the group seminar. <b>Methods</b>: A pharmacist conducted a group seminar on opioids for lung cancer inpatients who agreed to participate in the group seminar. Moreover, we performed a questionnaire survey before and after the delivery of the group seminar. <b>Results</b>: Sixty patients answered the questionnaire. After completion of the group seminar, the understanding and knowledge about opioids increased, as indicated by the responses of the patients to all of the questions. <b>Conclusion</b>: Complete elimination of the negative notion about opioids could not be achieved through the group seminar. However, the group seminar was thought to be one of the useful methods of educating patients. If a patient resists treatment with opioids, control of pain may be delayed. This in turn would hamper improvement of the quality of life. Therefore, we consider that it is necessary that a patient has the right knowledge about opioids beforehand. Palliat Care Res 2011; 6(1):109-118