Key Points• Use of LMWH is associated with a lower risk of HIT and HITT compared with use of UFH.• The Avoid-Heparin Initiative resulted in a dramatic reduction in the burden of suspected HIT, adjudicated HIT, HITT, and associated costs.Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) is an adverse drug reaction occurring in up to 5% of patients exposed to unfractionated heparin (UFH). We examined the impact of a hospital-wide strategy for avoiding heparin on the incidence of HIT, HIT with thrombosis (HITT), and HIT-related costs. The Avoid-Heparin Initiative, implemented at a tertiary care hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, since 2006, involved replacing UFH with lowmolecular-weight heparin (LMWH) for prophylactic and therapeutic indications. Consecutive cases with suspected HIT from 2003 through 2012 were reviewed. Rates of suspected HIT, adjudicated HIT, and HITT, along with HIT-related expenditures were compared in the pre-intervention (2003)(2004)(2005) and the avoid-heparin (2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012) phases. The annual rate of suspected HIT decreased 42%, from 85.5 per 10 000 admissions in the pre-intervention phase to 49.0 per 10 000 admissions in the avoidheparin phase (P < .001). The annual rate of patients with a positive HIT assay decreased 63% from 16.5 to 6.1 per 10 000 admissions (P < .001), adjudicated HIT decreased 79% from 10.7 to 2.2 per 10 000 admissions (P < .001), and HITT decreased 91% from 4.6 to 0.4 per 10 000 admissions (P < .001). Hospital HIT-related expenditures decreased by $266 938 per year in the avoid-heparin phase. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating the success and feasibility of a hospital-wide HIT prevention strategy. (Blood. 2016;127(16):1954-1959
Background: Domperidone, an effective prokinetic agent, is commonly used to manage symptoms of gastroparesis. Health regulatory agencies have issued warnings about an increased risk of sudden cardiac death associated with use of this drug.
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