Preparation of intravenous drug administration guidelines for a pediatric intensive care unit.

Drug administration is one of the main sources of errors in pediatric intensive care units (PICUs). An available guide for intravenous drug administration might be useful. The aim of this article is to present the methodology and results for the development of a guide for intravenous drug administration in a PICU. A total of 116 drugs were included. Standard concentrations, diluents, technique for reconstitution and dilution, stability, rate of administration, and relevant observations were defined for each drug according to a review of the most commonly used literature resources. The main unique feature of this article is that it includes standard concentrations for each drug.

Development of a compatibility chart for intravenous Y-site drug administration in a pediatric intensive care unit.

Pediatric patients admitted to intensive care units are likely candidates for intravenous drug administration. These patients may sometimes have limited vascular access, so availability of compatibility charts for intravenous Y-site administration may help daily clinical practice. A 2-dimensional table with the 47 intravenous drugs more commonly administered in the authors' pediatric intensive care unit was drawn up based on a review of 4 databases routinely used for checking drug compatibilities. The level of concordance between the various sources used for the review was strong (κ>0.8). However, an awareness of the limitations of each of these databases will help to optimize search results.