[Appropriate medication prescribing in older people]. / Bon usage des médicaments chez le sujet âgé.

Drug-induced adverse effects are one of the main avoidable causes of hospitalization in older people. Numerous lists of potentially inappropriate medications for older people have been published, as national and international guidelines for appropriate prescribing in numerous diseases and for different age categories. The present review describes the general rules for an appropriate prescribing in older people and summarizes, for the main conditions encountered in older people, medications that are too often under-prescribed, the precautions of use of the main drugs that induce adverse effects, and drugs for which the benefit to risk ratio is unfavourable in older people. All these data are assembled in educational tables designed to be printed in a practical pocket format and used in daily practice by prescribers, whether physicians, surgeons or pharmacists.

Proton pump inhibitor administration via nasogastric tube in pediatric practice: comparative analysis with protocol optimization.

Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are largely prescribed to children because their efficacy and tolerance are now well-established. One disadvantage resides in the absence of liquid form which causes problems for their administration in nasogastric tubes. Indeed, the absence of use recommendations involves many misuses responsible for inefficiency and/or tube obstruction. We tried to evaluate if PPIs can be administered through pediatric nasogastric tubes. We administered four PPIs (Omeprazole, esomeprazole, lansoprazole and lansoprazole orally disintegrating tablet) through nasogastric tubes. For each PPI a study plan was drawn up to assess the influence of different variables: the volume of water to dissolve or put in suspension the PPIs (2ml or 5ml), the volume of tube flush-through water post-PPI administration (2ml, 5ml or 10ml), the length (50cm or 125cm) and the diameter (6 or 8 French) of the polyurethane tubes. For each assay an analysis of each active ingredient at the tube outlet by UV spectrometry was carried out. All 6 F tubes were obstructed by PPIs. Through 8 F tubes, we observed a mean recovery of active ingredient of 86.2% for lansoprazole orally disintegrating tablet, 36.9% for esomeprazole but only 7.1% for lansoprazole and 3.9% for omeprazole. It is disadvised using omeprazole and lansoprazole through 8 F nasogastric tubes because no condition ensures the transit of an efficient concentration of active ingredient. For esomeprazole, the best conditions of administration were a water volume of 5ml and a rinse volume of 5ml but only a half of the microgranules administered were recovered. The most satisfactory results were obtained with lansoprazole orally disintegrating tablet. A 5ml volume of water diluent for suspension and a 10ml volume of flush-through water made it possible to deliver the full lansoprazole dose administered.