Knowledge, attitude and practice of pharmacovigilance towards adverse drug reactions reporting among health care professionals (nurses) in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Eastern India: an observational study

Background: Nursing staffs spend most time in patient care and are bedside caregivers. To expect voluntary reporting of adverse reactions, it is essential that they possess proper knowledge, right attitude and practice reporting. Therefore, the present study was aimed to assess the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Pharmacovigilance towards ADRs reporting.Methods: A prospective, cross sectional, observational, questionnaire-based survey was conducted among nurses in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Eastern India. Questionnaire containing 15 questions was used to assess knowledge, attitude and practice. The questionnaire was administered to 150 nurses. Analysis of data was done using statistical software..Results: The response rate in our study was 86.67%. Nurses have good knowledge of pharmacovigilance and adverse reaction. However, only 10% have reported an adverse reaction in our study. This shows that in spite of having a good knowledge of reporting, nurses have poor attitude, which is reflected by a low reporting rate. Nurses opined that taking patient care is of prime importance than report an adverse reaction. This corroborates the low reporting rate in our set up.Conclusions: Majority of nurses have good knowledge on pharmacovigilance and adverse drug reaction. The concern remains on the low reporting rate. Continuous training programmes, and reminders likely to enhance the voluntary reporting from the nursing staffs

EFFECT OF INTRATHECAL HEAVY BUPIVACAINE WITH DEXMEDETOMIDINE AND INTRATHECAL HEAVY BUPIVACAINE WITH FENTANYL IN LOWER ABDOMINAL AND GYNAECOLOGICAL SURGERIES

Objective: Spinal or epidural anesthesia techniques provide the best method of anesthesia for lower abdominal and lower limb surgeries. Small doses of adjuvants administered spinally provide profoundly prolonged segmental analgesia with good post-operative pain relief. The objective of the present study is to evaluate the efficacy of dexmedetomidine (10 μg) versus fentanyl (25 μg) as an adjuvant added to bupivacaine in spinal anesthesia for patients undergoing lower abdominal and gynecological surgeries and assessment of duration of post-operative analgesia. Methods: Hospital-based randomized double-blind controlled study conducted in tertiary teaching hospital of Kakinada and Rajahmundry. The period of study is February 2013–July 2018. Patients were divided into two groups of 25 each. In the first group, dexmedetomidine was added as adjuvant to bupivacaine whereas in the second group fentanyl was added as an adjuvant to bupivacaine. The visual analog scale used to assess the analgesic effect. Time at which the rescue analgesic given was noted which gives the duration of post-operative analgesia. Results: Results were analyzed in both groups. The software used for statistical analysis was GraphPad for windows 10.0.5. Continuous variables were analyzed with student t-test and analysis of variance. Post-operative analgesia duration is significantly prolonged in the dexmedetomidine group with a mean 308.64±12.50 compared to fentanyl group where the mean is 253.12 min±14.30. There is a statistically significant difference (p<0.0001) between the two groups. Conclusion: Intrathecal dexmedetomidine supplementation to spinal bupivacaine seems to be a good alternative to intrathecal fentanyl since it produces prolonged post-operative analgesia with minimal side effects and excellent quality of spinal analgesia

Study of the Stability of Various Biochemical Analytes in Samples Stored at Different Predefined Storage Conditions at an Accredited Laboratory of India

Background: Storage of serum and other blood products is often necessary in laboratories because of technical issues or to preserve samples for subsequent research purposes. The aim of this study was to determine whether the stability of biochemical analytes is affected by storage conditions. Materials and Methods: A total of 17 biochemical analytes in the sera of ten patients were examined following storage. Subsequent to determining the baseline measurements, the serum of each patient was aliquoted and stored at −20°C for 7, 15, and 30 days and then analyzed for stability. The results were compared with the initial analysis measurements obtained from fresh samples. Mean changes compared to baseline (T0) concentrations were evaluated both statistically and clinically. Results: Our results show that sodium, potassium, urea, creatinine, uric acid, total calcium, phosphorus, direct bilirubin, total bilirubin, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, total protein, albumin, cholesterol, and triglyceride levels were stable under all conditions. Serum amylase was the only analyte demonstrating instability following prolonged storage; amylase levels changed significantly (both statistically and clinically) at 7, 15, and 30 days (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Most common biochemical analytes, except for amylase, showed adequate stability in serum following 30 days of storage at −20°C. Serum amylase analysis should be conducted on the same day that the sample is received in the laboratory