Abstract

ARBESU MICHELENA, Antonieta; JIMENEZ RODRIGUEZ, Deise; GUZMAN RESCONDIDO, Anisley  and  MASSO MAULIN, Kenia. Preparation of intravenous cytostatic mixtures: one-year work experience at the Pharmaceutical Service of the Nacional Institute of Oncology and Radiobiology. Rev Cubana Farm [online]. 2008, vol.42, n.3, pp. 0-0. ISSN 1561-2988.

From October 2006 to September 2007, which marked the beginning of the preparation of intravenous cytostatic mixtures by the Pharmaceutical Service of the National Institute of Oncology and Radiobiology, a number of results were achieved and then considered for analysis in this paper. The selected indicators included the number of detected and/or avoided medication errors, cytostatics consumption, therapies recovered through centralized preparation and the implementation of Good Practices of Preparation and Pharmacy. The results were compared with those of similar periods of time in previous years. It was observed that the involvement of the pharmacist in the oncological chemotherapy team contributed to recovering costly therapies such as 80mg Docetaxel, 300mg Paclitaxel and 150mg Transtuzomab ampules. One hundred and twenty one patients could potentially benefit from these therapies, mainly those suffering breast cancer. The consumption of cytostatic drugs such as 1 mg Vincristine and 15mg Bleomycin ampules decreased; the application of technical and economic control evidenced an increased use of 200 mg Cyclophosphamide and 10mg Cisplatine ampules. Besides, 1,3% medication errors in prescription was detected and avoided, although this is still a high figure. It was concluded that the involvement of a pharmacist in the medical team improves the quality of service in those hospitals that care for oncological patients. It was suggested that a pharmacist should be incorporated into the medical teams of other hospital centers throughout the country since this encourages the implementation of Good Practices of Preparation and contributes to minimizing medication errors.

Keywords : Centralized unit of cytostatic mixtures; Good Practices of Preparation; medication errors in cytostatic; prescription.