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Purpose: Potential drug-drug interactions (pDDIs) may harm patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Due to the patient's critical condition and continuous monitoring on the ICU, not all pDDIs are clinically relevant. Clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) warning for irrelevant pDDIs could result in alert fatigue and overlooking important signals. Therefore, our aim was to describe the frequency of clinically relevant pDDIs (crpDDIs) to enable tailoring of CDSSs to the ICU setting., Materials & Methods: In this multicenter retrospective observational study, we used medication administration data to identify pDDIs in ICU admissions from 13 ICUs. Clinical relevance was based on a Delphi study in which intensivists and hospital pharmacists assessed the clinical relevance of pDDIs for the ICU setting., Results: The mean number of pDDIs per 1000 medication administrations was 70.1, dropping to 31.0 when considering only crpDDIs. Of 103,871 ICU patients, 38% was exposed to a crpDDI. The most frequently occurring crpDDIs involve QT-prolonging agents, digoxin, or NSAIDs., Conclusions: Considering clinical relevance of pDDIs in the ICU setting is important, as only half of the detected pDDIs were crpDDIs. Therefore, tailoring CDSSs to the ICU may reduce alert fatigue and improve medication safety in ICU patients., (Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To describe a patient who developed torsade de pointes while being treated with fluconazole., Case Summary: A 33-year-old woman with a 5 year history of systemic lupus erythematosus was admitted to the intensive care unit because of respiratory insufficiency due to Candida albicans pneumonia. Therapy with intravenous fluconazole 200 mg/day, with dose later adjusted according to her renal function, was started. Prolongation of the QTc interval and torsade de pointes occurred. Initially, domperidone, which had been initiated the day before fluconazole, was suspected as the possible cause and was discontinued; ultimately, both drugs were discontinued. However, torsade de pointes recurred several weeks later when the patient was treated with fluconazole for a second time and disappeared again on withdrawal of the drug. According to the Naranjo probability scale, this adverse reaction was highly probable., Discussion: The risk of torsade de pointes does not correlate in a linear fashion with prolongation of the QTc interval, but an interval beyond 500 msec is considered a significant risk factor. Given that both fluconazole and domperidone are metabolized by the cytochrome P450 system, they may intensify each other's proarrhythmic effects, particularly in patients with concurrent renal dysfunction. These risks are of particular concern in patients whose baseline QTc interval is prolonged for any reason., Conclusions: From the case history, as well as use of the Naranjo scale, we concluded that fluconazole was the highly probable cause of the development of torsade de pointes in our patient.

Purpose: Rectal injuries during barium enema are rare but life-threatening complications. The last review about this subject was published more than ten years ago. In the present review, we present an overview on the subject and especially focus on changes in treatment strategies and developments of less risky visualization techniques., Methods: A literature search was performed in the PubMed library using the key words-barium enema, complications, peritonitis, and rectal perforation-as well as related articles and other references obtained from these articles., Results: The most frequent cause of perforation is iatrogenic and catheter-related. Other causes are related to weakness of the colorectal wall or obstruction. Five types of perforations have been described: 1) perforations of the anal canal below the levator; 2) incomplete perforations; 3) perforations into the retroperitoneum; 4) transmural perforations into adjacent viscera; 5) perforations into the free intraperitoneal cavity. Most incomplete perforations and one-half of the retroperitoneal perforations have minimal clinical signs. Intraperitoneal perforations lead to the most catastrophic course, starting with rectal bleeding and mild abdominal complaints. This is rapidly followed by progressive sepsis and peritonitis, and leads to a high mortality rate. Surgery is not always required for intramural or small retroperitoneal perforations. These can be treated conservatively and require surgical debridement only in case of large amounts of extravasation or abscesses. Surgical repair of large rectal mucosal lesions or anal sphincter lesions is advised. Perirectal abscesses require drainage. Intraperitoneal perforations with gross extravasation need immediate aggressive surgical treatment in a critical care setting, because the threat of shock is high. Intraperitoneal perforations, neglected perforations, gross barium extravasation, poorly prepared colon, and venous intravasation of barium are prognostically unfavorable. The severest late complication in intraperitoneal perforations is ileus. Meticulous technical performance of the barium enema is the most important factor in prevention., Conclusions: Rectal perforations after barium enema are rare. The overall mortality rate decreased in recent decades from approximately 50 to 35 percent as the result of advances in supportive and intensive care. Because of these advances, more aggressive surgical strategies were undertaken. With the advent of endoscopy, less barium enemas are performed. Consequently, the absolute incidence of complications has decreased. It is expected that in the future barium enemas will be replaced by more sensitive and less risky techniques, such as CT colonography and magnetic resonance colonography.

We present a 49-y-old male, with a history of Marfan's disease and aortic and mitral valve replacement surgery, who was operated for a type III thoracoabdominal aneurysm. The postoperative course was compromised by a Staphylococcus epidermidis mitral valve endocarditis, which was successfully treated only after intravenous linezolid was included in the therapy.

A 55-year-old female patient is described who had recurrent retroperitoneal infections without an apparent focus. After a protracted period of illness the infection proved to be caused by actinomycosis. An unusual feature of the inflammatory process consisted of obstruction of the ureters, ultimately resulting in destruction of the left kidney. Hydronephrosis resulting from inflammatory fibrosis has not been reported in the literature before.