Hair loss induced by lopinavir-ritonavir.

A 38-year-old Caucasian woman with uncontrolled human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection was treated with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) consisting of zidovudine, lamivudine, and nevirapine. Because her therapeutic response was inadequate, the HAART regimen was changed to abacavir, lamivudine, and lopinavir-ritonavir. Three months after this therapy was started, the patient developed progressive and notable hair loss. Her hair became fair and thin, and her appearance deteriorated considerably. Hair loss due to HAART was diagnosed. Lopinavir-ritonavir was stopped, and efavirenz was substituted; abacavir and lamivudine were continued. After 4 weeks, her hair growth substantially improved, as evidenced by rapid growth of new hair. Her general condition also improved. No relapse was observed with the new HAART regimen, and the patient's hair loss completely reversed in 8 weeks. Alopecia is a possible adverse event in HIV-infected patients treated with protease inhibitors, particularly indinavir. Our patient's severe and generalized alopecia was temporally related to the initiation and discontinuation of lopinavir-ritonavir. On the basis of the Naranjo adverse drug reaction probability scale, the adverse reaction was considered probable. Although generalized hair loss due to lopinavir-ritonavir is rare, clinicians should be aware of this potential adverse reaction of this widely used drug. If alopecia is severe or particularly distressing to the patient, the offending drug should be discontinued, and therapy with another HIV drug should be started.

Programa multidisciplinario de prevención de errores de medicación en un hospital / Developing a multidisciplinary medication safety program in a hospital

Los errores de medicación (EM) son una de las principales causas de acontecimientos adversos prevenibles en el ámbito hospitalario, y se estima que afectan a un 1,8% (rango, 1,3-7,8%) de los pacientes ingresados. Por ello, se promueve el desarrollo e implantación de prácticas efectivas para mejorar la seguridad del sistema de utilización de medicamentos. El objetivo de este artículo es describir las principales fases de un programa interno de notificación y prevención de incidentes por medicamentos en un hospital, y comentar algunos aspectos que pueden facilitar su abordaje. Se destaca la importancia de contar con el compromiso explícito del equipo directivo para transformar la cultura de la institución y disponer de los recursos necesarios, así como constituir un comité multidisciplinario integrado por farmacéuticos, médicos, enfermeras y representantes del equipo directivo. Este comité debe fomentar la creación de una cultura de seguridad y paralelamente desarrollar los procedimientos necesarios para conocer, evaluar y mejorar continuamente la seguridad del sistema de utilización de los medicamentos. Esto supone una secuencia de actuaciones que incluyen, en primer lugar, el establecimiento de métodos para detectar los EM que ocurren, entre los cuales se comentan la notificación voluntaria, por ser el método básico, y los sistemas automatizados de alerta. A continuación se debe realizar el análisis y evaluación de los EM detectados, para identificar los fallos existentes en el sistema. Finalmente, el paso fundamental del programa es la implantación de medidas de mejora en función de los fallos detectados y el seguimiento de los resultados en términos de prevención de errores

Medication errors (ME) constitute one of the main causes of preventable adverse events in hospital settings, affecting an estimated 1.8% (range, 1.3-7.8%) of hospitalized patients. Concerns over this problem are leading to the development and implantation of effective practices designed to improve the safety of the medication use system. The objective of this article was to describe the principal steps of an internal program for reporting and preventing medication-related incidents in a hospital and to discuss certain aspects that might facilitate putting such a program into practice. The importance of obtaining an explicit commitment from the hospital administration to transform the culture of the institution and to provide the necessary resources, as well as to create a multidisciplinary committee including pharmacists, physicians, nurses, and administrators is emphasized. This committee should be charged with encouraging the creation of a culture of safety and at the same time with developing the procedures required to continually study, evaluate, and improve the safety of the medication use system. All of this presupposes a sequence of actions that includes, first of all, the establishment of methods for detecting MEs when they occur, which may include voluntary reporting, as the basic method, and computer alert systems. Next, analysis and evaluation of the detected MEs should be carried out to identify existing faults in the system. Finally, the fundamental step in the program is the implantation of measures for improvement according to the failures detected, with appropriate follow-up of results in terms of error prevention