Canadian pharmacists are willing to expand their scope of practice to include immunization. However, implementation requires professional development and certification in vaccine administration.

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BackgroundPostoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) is one of the most common postoperative complications of general anesthesia in pediatrics. Aromatherapy has been shown to be effective in treating PONV in adults. Given the encouraging results of the adult studies, we planned to determine feasibility of doing a large-scale study in the pediatric population.MethodsOur group conducted a pilot randomized controlled trial examining the effect of aromatherapy on post-operative nausea and vomiting in patients 4–16 undergoing ambulatory surgery at a single center. Nausea was defined as a score of 4/10 on the Baxter Retching Faces Scale (BARF scale). A clinically significant reduction was defined as a two-point reduction in Nausea. Post operatively children were administered the BARF scale in 15 min internals until discharge home or until nausea score of 4/10 or greater. Children with nausea were randomized to saline placebo group or aromatherapy QueaseEase™ (Soothing Scents, Inc, Enterprise, AL: blend of ginger, lavender, mint and spearmint). Nausea scores were recorded post intervention.ResultsA total of 162 subjects were screened for inclusion in the study. Randomization occurred in 41 subjects of which 39 were included in the final analysis. For the primary outcome, 14/18 (78 %) of controls reached primary outcome compared to 19/21 (90 %) in the aromatherapy group (p = 0.39, Eta 0.175). Other outcomes included use of antiemetic in PACU (control 44 %, aromatherapy 52 % P = 0.75, Eta 0.08), emesis (Control 11 %, 9 % aromatherapy, P = 0.87, Eta = 0.03). There was a statistically significant difference in whether subjects continued to use the intervention (control 28 %, aromatherapy 66 %, p-value 0.048, Eta 0.33).ConclusionAromatherapy had a small non-significant effect size in treating postoperative nausea and vomiting compared with control. A large-scale randomized control trial would not be feasible at our institution and would be of doubtful utility.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT02663154.

Tricyclic antidepressant (TCA) overdose is a leading cause of death among intentional overdoses. Intravenous lipid emulsion therapy is an emerging antidote for local anesthetic toxicity, and there is animal evidence that lipid therapy may be efficacious in TCA overdose. Furthermore, case reports in humans have described the use of lipid therapy to reverse the toxicity of other lipophilic drugs. Here we report a 25-year-old female presenting with coma and hemodynamic instability following intentional ingestion of amitriptyline. She had multiple episodes of pulseless wide-complex tachycardia despite conventional treatment with chest compressions, cardioversion, lidocaine, epinephrine, norepinephrine, magnesium sulphate, sodium bicarbonate, activated charcoal, and whole bowel irrigation. Twenty percent lipid emulsion was administered intravenously (an initial 150 mL bolus, followed by an infusion at 16 mL/h and a second bolus of 40 mL) over 39 hours (total dose 814 mL) yet resulted in no dramatic changes in hemodynamics or level of consciousness. However, there was a decrease in the frequency of wide-complex tachycardia during the lipid emulsion infusion and a recurrence of wide-complex tachycardia shortly after the infusion was stopped. The patient was discharged from the intensive care unit 11 days later with no lasting physiologic sequelae. Keywords: amitriptyline, intravenous fat emulsions, tricyclic antidepressive agentsTricyclic antidepressant (TCA) overdose is an important cause of mortality following intentional overdose despite timely and aggressive treatment.1 Intravenous lipid emulsion therapy is an exciting new treatment for lipophilic drug overdoses. Lipid therapy is widely advocated for local anesthetic toxicity 2 and is increasingly reported in the literature for overdoses of other pharmaceuticals. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] We report the use of lipid therapy in a case of refractory pulseless wide-complex tachycardia resulting from an amitriptyline overdose. CASE REPORTA 50 kg, 25-year-old female was discovered unconscious in her house near several empty bottles of amitriptyline. The patient had a history of anorexia and depression and had stockpiled multiple amitriptyline prescriptions from different physicians specifically for the purpose of committing suicide. The total number and dose were not recorded, and there were possible coingestions of her regular medications, which included fluoxetine, escitalopram, olanzapine, quetiapine, and gabapentin. Paramedics found her to be unresponsive with a Glasgow Coma Scale score of 3, a heart rate of 60 beats/min, a wide QRS (186 ms), and a blood pressure of 60 mm Hg systolic. She was intubated without sedation and taken to the emergency department (ED).In the ED, the patient went into a pulseless widecomplex tachycardia three times over the next 2 hours. Each episode was treated with chest compressions, synchronized cardioversion, lidocaine, and epinephrine. After cardioversion, the patient reverted to sinus rhythm with a wide QRS dura...

The study explores the prevalence of unrecognized diabetes mellitus (DM), the incidence and risk factors new onset diabetes mellitus (NODM) and determines whether patient survival differs between patients with transient (NODM that resolves) compared with those with fixed NODM. This is a single center review of solitary kidney recipients transplanted from 1993 to 2003. Of the 381 patients without DM pre-transplant, 111 met criteria for DM post. Of these 17 were unrecognized to have DM, 31 had transient (resolved) NODM and 64 had fixed NODM. In a multivariate analysis, age, body mass index, repeat transplant and rejection were risk factors for NODM. In a separate analysis of only fixed NODM, tacrolimus use showed a trend for an independent association (HR 1.7 95% CI 0.95-2.9). NODM patient survival was comparable to non-diabetic recipients even up to 10 yr; however, excess mortality started to be seen in the fixed NODM subgroup at late follow up. Use of more stringent DM criteria results in a population with relatively good intermediate term survival and allows detection and treatment of early disease. Transient NODM represents approximately one third of NODM and has a relatively good prognosis.