![]() ![]() In 17 cases, a pharmacist or nurse (or patient/caregiver in the home setting) noticed the precipitate and immediately remedied the problem or stopped the injection or infusion. Since 1998, a total of 23 cases of precipitation have been reported to the ISMP National Medication Errors Reporting Program (ISMP MERP). 3 The consequences can be particularly severe in pediatric patients. The precipitate can lead to therapeutic failures due to drug inactivation, catheter occlusions, and varying levels of harm due to particulate embolization, ranging from thrombophlebitis to multi-organ failure or even death. If a precipitate is observed, the drug or solution should not be administered. 2 Precipitation reactions are usually rapid and can be observed as crystals, haziness, or turbidity. ![]() 1 In an analysis of more than 300 drug incompatibilities reported to the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority between 20, almost one in five mentioned the formation of a precipitate. ![]() To ensure the safe intravascular delivery of medications and solutions, practitioners must be observant for potentially dangerous precipitates often caused by drug or diluent incompatibilities (e.g., acid-base reactions, mixing oppositely charged organic drug ions). Dispensing and administration of a product with a visible precipitate However, these recent events brought to our attention that this may be a more widespread problem, which healthcare providers may need to address with clinical training programs and stepped-up monitoring to ensure adherence with safe practices. We have not previously published the scattered reports we have received related to these unsafe practices, initially believing they were isolated cases. One involves the dispensing and intravenous (IV) administration of a pharmacy-prepared product despite a visible precipitate, and the other involves the reuse of prefilled saline flush syringes for multiple patients, leading to the transmission of bloodborne diseases. Once the precipitate has been recovered, the resulting powder may be called a "flower.Problem: Two events recently brought to our attention have again thrust unsafe injection and infusion practices into the limelight. A common sedimentation technique is centrifugation. Sedimentation refers to any procedure that separates the precipitate from the liquid portion of the solution, which is called the supernate. If the particle size of the insoluble compound is very small or there is insufficient gravity to draw the solid to the bottom of the container, the precipitate may be evenly distributed throughout the liquid, forming a suspension. The solid that is formed is called the precipitate. A chemical that causes a solid to form in a liquid solution is called a precipitant. Here's how it works: forming a solid from a solution is called precipitation. The terminology can seem a bit confusing. They are used for purification, removing or recovering salts, for making pigments, and to identify substances in qualitative analysis. Precipitation reactions serve important functions.The solid that forms via a precipitation reaction is called the precipitate. ![]() To precipitate is to form an insoluble compound, either by decreasing the solubility of a compound or by reacting two salt solutions.In chemistry, precipitate is both a verb and a noun. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |