IMPORTANCE High-dose glucocorticoids (GCs) are routinely given to surgical patients with a history of GC exposure to prevent perioperative acute adrenal insufficiency, but this practice is not well supported.OBJECTIVE To evaluate the variability of perioperative GC dosing among patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) undergoing major abdominal surgery. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTSThis was a retrospective study of 49 patients with IBD undergoing colorectal surgery at a single institution between July 2010 and August 2011. Data on patient comorbidities, intraoperative risk factors, surgical site infections, and 30-day readmission rates were prospectively collected from the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program. Preoperative GC exposure at the time of the index admission and perioperative GC therapy during admission were collected by review of the medical records. Patients were divided into 3 groups at the time of surgery: (1) 1 week or more of prior GC exposure, not receiving maintenance therapy (n = 15); (2) currently receiving budesonide (n = 10); and (3) currently receiving oral prednisone (n = 24). MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURESPerioperative GC exposure was the main outcome. Qualitative comparisons of perioperative exposure stratified by preoperative GC exposure were done. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to determine significant differences in surgical site infection and 30-day readmission rates among patients with and without perioperative GC exposure.RESULTS Overall, 38 of 49 patients (78%) received perioperative GCs; intraoperative GCs were administered to 35 of 49 patients (71%), and 33 of 49 patients (67%) received postoperative GCs. Patients received intraoperative and postoperative GCs, respectively, as follows: 8 patients (53%) and 7 (47%) in group 1, 7 (70%) and 3 (30%) in group 2, and 20 (83%) and 23 (96%) in group 3. The median intraoperative GC dose was 100 mg (range, 50-267 mg of hydrocortisone or hydrocortisone equivalent for dexamethasone); the median total postoperative GC dose for the first 5 days after surgery was 485 mg (range, 50-890 mg of hydrocortisone or hydrocortisone equivalent for prednisone). The median duration of postoperative GC administration was 3 days for group 1, 6 days for group 2, and 7 days for group 3. No statistically significant difference in surgical site infection and 30-day readmission rates was detected in the GC exposure vs no-exposure groups.CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Perioperative GC dosing among patients with IBD undergoing colorectal surgery is highly variable even within a single center. Additional studies are needed to define the risk of postoperative adrenal insufficiency and establish standardized practices for perioperative GC therapy, which may have the benefit of reducing GC overuse.

BackgroundAdverse drug events are associated with an increase in hospital stay and cost. Risks from these events are minimized by adjusting a medication’s dose or frequency, and changes in renal function may necessitate adjustments. Currently, there is no formal procedure for a prospective audit of renal function over the weekend at our institution. This pharmacist-driven initiative will evaluate if a prospective review identified by real-time clinical decision support alerts over the weekend will reduce the time from change in renal function to dose adjustment of select antimicrobials and/or anticoagulants.MethodsThis monitoring initiative is comprised of a pre- and post-cohort population. The pre-cohort population included patients admitted to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center (PPMC) from January to March of 2018 on select antimicrobials and/or anticoagulants, who were identified to have a change in renal function (serum creatinine change of 0.3 mg/dL or greater) over the weekend. The post-cohort population was identified with a clinical decision support system (ILÚM Health Solutions, Kenilworth, NJ) and included patients admitted to PPMC from January to March of 2019. A pharmacy resident reviewed alerts in the clinical decision support system over the weekend and contacted providers with dose adjustment recommendations. The Mann–Whitney U test was used to analyze the primary endpoint while descriptive statistics were used for the secondary endpointsResultsEighteen interventions were completed within the 3-month post-cohort intervention period, with a time to dose adjustment between the pre/post-cohort being reduced by 50 hours (P = 0.0001) resulting in a median time to change of 11 hours in the post-cohort. All pharmacy recommendations were accepted by the provider, and 94% of medication adjustments were antimicrobials.ConclusionThe application of this prospective weekend initiative utilizing a clinical decision support system demonstrated a clinically and statistically significant reduction in the time to dose adjustments for antimicrobials and/or anticoagulants. Implementation of this initiative will further establish a role for pharmacist-led evaluations and could potentially be expanded to other clinical areas.Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.

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