Association of orexin receptor antagonists with falls during hospitalization.

WHAT IS KNOWN AND OBJECTIVE: The use of hypnotics, especially benzodiazepines (BZs), increases the risk of falls. Regarding the association of orexin receptor antagonists with fall risk, consistent results have not been obtained for suvorexant, and studies of lemborexant have not been reported. Therefore, this study investigated whether orexin receptor antagonists, including lemborexant, increase the risk of falls. METHODS: Data were obtained from the medical records of patients hospitalized at Saga University Hospital in Japan between July 2020 and April 2021. Patients were retrospectively divided into the fall and non-fall groups, and the groups were compared for medication usage. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The fall and non-fall groups included 132 and 6857 patients respectively. A significantly higher proportion of patients in the fall group used hypnotics (40.2% vs. 21.7%; p < 0.0001). Hypnotics remained significantly associated with a higher risk of falls after adjusting for confounders (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 1.67, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.13-2.48, p = 0.01). In particular, the use of benzodiazepines was associated with a significantly higher risk of falls (adjusted OR = 2.08, 95% CI = 1.38-3.15, p = 0.0005). Meanwhile, suvorexant use was not linked to the risk of falls, and lemborexant use was associated with a significantly lower risk of falls (adjusted OR = 0.27, 95% CI = 0.09-0.84, p = 0.02). WHAT IS NEW AND CONCLUSION: The use of hypnotics is a risk factor for falls, but orexin receptor antagonists may represent a safe option for patients requiring hypnotics. Our results provide evidence supporting the safety of these drugs.

Development of an application for management of drug holidays in perioperative periods.

Before surgery and other invasive treatments, decisions must be made on whether to discontinue drugs and provide appropriate drug holidays especially for antithrombotic drugs, and this is made difficult by the large number of available drugs and associated guidelines. We have therefore developed an online application for perioperative drug discontinuation and resumption management, named Saga Application for Management of Drug Holidays in PeriOperative Periods (SAMPOP).Multidisciplinary medical staff at Saga University Hospital (SUH) worked together to build an evidence-based Perioperative Drug Discontinuation Management Database (PDDMD) and developed the user-friendly SAMPOP online application via preliminary verification at SUH. From September 2018 to February 2020, 420 medical staff at SUH, including physicians, nurses, and pharmacists, installed and tested SAMPOP.Rate per surgical procedure for forgetting to discontinue antithrombotic drugs preoperatively decreased from 0.18% to 0.09% as of August 2019, 12 months after the introduction of SAMPOP (P = .1359). In addition, six months later, it decreased further to 0.03% as of February 2020 (P = .0436). Forgetting to resume antithrombotic drugs postoperatively decreased from 0.20% to 0.02% as of August 2019, 12 months after the introduction of SAMPOP (P = .0008). There was no case of forgetting to resume the medication in the last 6 months.SAMPOP may be useful for management of drug holidays in the clinic and warrants further evaluation of its safety and efficacy.