[Microbiological control in parenteral nutrition mixtures. Indices of contamination]. / Control microbiológico en mezclas de nutrición parenteral. Indices de contaminación.

Potential contamination of nutritional mixtures during preparation in the Pharmacy Services has led to the need for microbiological controls. In our study, we set out the techniques used in the Son Dureta Hospital between 1986 and 1991. During those six years 11,023 nutritional mixtures were prepared, and 1,714 bacteriological controls were carried out, representing 15.5% of the total. Between January 1986 and June 1989, the simple culture technique was used (culture of 10 ml of the prepared mixture). The contamination rate was 1.27%. Between July 1989 and December 1991, the double sample technique was applied, involving a culture of 10 ml of the mixture, keeping a further 10 ml for subsequent verification culture. With this technique, the contamination rate was fixed at 0.34%. The advantages and drawbacks of the techniques used are described, along with the problem of initial false positives, and a review is made of the 39 germs isolated during the period of study.

[A comparative study of 5 infusion pumps: an evaluation of their suitability for administering parenteral nutrition]. / Estudio comparativo de cinco bombas de infusión: evaluación de su idoneidad para la administración de nutrición parenteral.

To facilitate the control of administering parenteral nutrition (PN), the tendency is to replace traditional infusion equipment with infusion pumps. The aim of this study is to determine the characteristics that a pump should have for infusing PN mixtures and, based on these, to evaluate five models available on the market. The pumps evaluated, all with volumetric programming were: Becton Dickinson VIP II (Prim); Life-Care Pump Model 4 (Abbot-Shaw); Infusomat Secura 1.000 (Braun); Flo-gard (tm) 6,200 (Baxter) and IVAC-591 (Ivac). The following method was used: a) Definition of 16 basic requisites and 7 secondary requisites considered necessary in a PN pump, in accordance with the following criteria: safety, practical usage, comfort and hospital circuits. b) Review and checking of the technical reports on each pump. c) Laboratory tests simulating PN infusion, evaluating the regularity and precision of the infusion speed, and d) Subjective evaluation survey. All the pumps under study complied with the basic requisites. There were differences in the subjective evaluation, although with regard to all concepts and models a score of over 2.5 was reached in a scale of 0 to 5. The highest and lowest values with regard to regularity and precision were within the following ranges: +/- 0.6 ml/h(-)+/- 0.0 ml/h and + 3.4%(-)-1.6% respectively, and no instance of values outside the established ones was detected. The pumps only partly complied with the secondary requisites. Finally, the criteria for defining the most significant requisites was reviewed, based on the services offered by the existing pumps, as well as techniques for determining regularity and precision.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)