Because of the current inavailability of Kinevac, the form of sincalide for injection approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), nuclear medicine clinics may consider alternatives, including purchasing a compounded product, and some pharmacists may be considering compounding this drug (1). However, several concerns relative to compounded sincalide make such practices ill advised. ...

PURPOSE The evolution of sterile compounding in the context of hospital patient care, the evolution of related technology, past incidents of morbidity and mortality associated with preparations compounded in various settings, and efforts over the years to improve compounding practices are reviewed. SUMMARY Tightened United States Pharmacopeial Convention standards (since 2004) for sterile com...

The compounding of medications is a fundamental part of pharmacy practice. All compounding personnel, mainly pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, are responsible for compounding and dispensing sterile products and preparations of correct ingredient identity, purity (freedom from physical contaminants, such as precipitates, and chemical contaminants), strength (including stability and compatibi...

Nationally distributed medications from compounding pharmacies, which typically adhere to less stringent quality-control standards than pharmaceutical manufacturers, can lead to multistate outbreaks. We investigated a cluster of 6 patients in a Maryland hospital who had Sphingomonas paucimobilis bloodstream infections in November 2007. Of the 6 case-patients, 5 (83%) had received intravenous fe...

Compounding pharmacies and contract testing laboratories can readily utilize critical information that microbial identification methods provide. Rapidly identifying the genus and species of environmental isolates and sample contaminates provides pharmacies and laboratories the opportunity to determine the possible source and implement corrective actions to improve compounding and testing proces...

PURPOSE Issues surrounding pharmacy compounding as well as patient safety concerns surrounding compounding of high-risk level products are discussed. SUMMARY The practice of traditional pharmacy compounding is an established activity of pharmacists that serves a vital function to meet the prescribed medical needs of individual patients. However, legal and regulatory debate concerning the over...

1 Follow protocols when using medications from compounding pharmacies C ompounding pharmacies have long been valued for their ability to tailor prescription drugs for specific patients. More recently, they have helped conserve scarce drugs by redistributing them from larger to smaller single-use vials. For an ambulatory surgery center (ASC) that is not associated with a hospital and therefore h...

INTRODUCTION Echocardiography is commonly used in clinical practice for the real-time assessment of cardiac morphology and function. Nevertheless, due to the nature of the data acquisition, cardiac ultrasound images are often corrupted by a range of acoustic artefacts, including acoustic noise, speckle and shadowing. Spatial compounding techniques have long been recognised for their ability to ...

OBJECTIVE To assess the effectiveness of a product-analysis laboratory exercise in teaching students the importance of quality in pharmaceutical compounding. DESIGN Second-year pharmacy students (N=77) participated in a pharmaceutical compounding laboratory exercise and subsequently analyzed their final product using ultraviolet (UV) spectrometry. ASSESSMENT Reflection, survey instruments, ...

Automated compounding devices are frequently used by pharmacists for the extemporaneous preparation of parenteral nutrition admixtures. This continuing shift from manual compounding procedures comes as a result of significant advances in automated technology, as well as in response to changing health care demands to provide admixture compounding in a safer, more efficient, and more accurate man...