Objectives:
Andexanet alfa is the first approved antidote in the management of life-threatening bleeds in patients treated with Xa inhibitors. The ANNEXA-4 study was successful in reducing factor Xa levels during time of administration but lacked correlation to improved patient outcomes. Given its novel mechanism of action, U.S. boxed warning, cost of up to $58,000 per dose, and limited efficacy data compared with standard of care, hospitals are faced with a dilemma with its addition to formulary and process for ensuring optimized use. The objective of this study was to evaluate adherence to institution restriction criteria and the clinical outcomes of treatment for patients for whom andexanet alfa is requested.
Design:
Retrospective cohort study of andexanet alfa requests within a 12-month time period.
Setting:
A 600-bed community teaching hospital.
Patients:
Patients whom pharmacists received request for dispensing andexanet alfa.
Interventions:
None.
MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS:
Quality outcomes reviewed compliance to restriction criteria. Clinical outcomes evaluated use of adjunctive blood products, ICU length of stay, hospital length of stay, and hospital mortality. Safety outcomes evaluated incidence of thrombotic events.
Andexanet alfa was requested for 16 patients from November 2018 to November 2019. It was administered in nine patients, with compliance to restriction criteria of 66.6%, average ICU length of stay 5.6 days, hospital length of stay 8.6 days, hospital mortality in 44.4%, and thrombotic events in 33.3%. Orders were rejected in seven patients with compliance to restriction criteria of 100%, ICU length of stay 3.2 days, hospital length of stay 5.5 days, hospital mortality in 14%, and thrombotic events in 14%.
Conclusions:
A greater rate of adverse effects and mortality was identified with the use of andexanet alfa compared with clinical trials. This is potentially due to its use in a more severely ill patient population and lack of adherence to restriction criteria.
Introduction: Drug toxicity and polypharmacy are major risk factors for delirium, especially in older adult patients with underlying comorbidities. However, numerous case reports have described drugs with a lower suspicion of being deliriogenic. The objective of this study was to identify deliriogenic drugs in the Food and Drug Administration Adverse Events Reporting System (FAERS) to broaden the public knowledge and understanding.
Study Design: Retrospective pharmacovigilance evaluation.
Methods: FAERS reports from 2004 through 2015 were reviewed for delirium-associated terms, which were utilized to identify drugs most frequently reported to cause delirium. Drugs were categorized as: 1) known to be deliriogenic; 2) potentially deliriogenic; or 3) new potential to be deliriogenic. The 100 most frequently reported drugs were analyzed in reporting odds ratios (ROR).
Results: Of the known deliriogenic drugs (n=32), paroxetine (ROR 4.1, CI 4.0-4.3), olanzapine (ROR 3.3, CI 3.2-3.4), and clozapine (ROR 2.9, CI 2.8-3.0) were most reported. Of the potentially deliriogenic drugs (n=54), duloxetine (ROR 3.2, CI 3.1-3.3), varenicline (ROR 3.1, CI 3.0-3.2), and gabapentin (ROR 2.9, CI 2.7-3.0) were most reported. Three drugs were considered to have new potential to be deliriogenic: heparin (ROR 1.5, CI 1.4-1.6), metformin (ROR 1.3, CI 1.3-1.4), and dalfampridine (ROR 1.1, CI 1.1-1.2).
Conclusion: The majority of drugs were considered potentially deliriogenic. FAERS can provide post-marketing surveillance data to guide future studies on potentially deliriogenic drugs to guide management of causal agents.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.