Background The intratympanic application of the ototoxic aminoglycoside gentamicin has shown promising results as an ablative treatment for vertigo associated with Ménière's disease. Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of intratympanic gentamicin and to specifically analyse the effect of this treatment on high and low hearing frequencies in patients with unilateral definite Ménière's disease. Method Subjects were treated with intratympanic gentamicin and were evaluated on vertigo, tinnitus, mean pure tone audiometry threshold and speech discrimination score. Subjects were followed for evaluation for up to 2 years after treatment. Results The number of vertigo spells per month decreased and subjects experienced less tinnitus. During follow up there was an increase of hearing loss in the low (0.25-, 0.5-, 1-kHz) frequency range (13.3 dB; p = 0.03). There was no significant increase of hearing loss in the high (2-, 4-, 8-kHz) frequency range. A clinically significant change in speech discrimination score was found in 50 % of the subjects. Conclusion Our results indicate that intratympanic gentamicin especially affects the mean pure tone audiometry threshold in the low frequency range, which may have clinical implications. Though many of our results are (statistically) substantial the study was limited by the small cohort size.

Background:Medication discrepancies are a common occurrence following hospital admission and carry the potential for causing harm. However, little is known about the potential risk factors involved in medication discrepancies.Objective:The objective of this study was to determine how frequently medication discrepancies occur and their associated risk factors, in patients hospitalized via the emergency department of the Spaarne Gasthuis Hospital, located in The Netherlands.Methods:This retrospective observational study examines 832 hospital admissions which took place between April 1st and June 30th, 2015. Medication reconciliation was performed within 24 hours of admission and medication discrepancies were registered. The primary outcome recorded in the study was the proportion of patients experiencing one or more medication discrepancies, as verified by the physician. As a secondary outcome, the association between these discrepancies and pre-specified variables was analyzed using univariate and multivariate logistic regression.Results:At least one medication discrepancy was found to have occurred with 97 of the 832 patients (11.7%), the most common discrepancies involving incorrect drug dose (44.9%) and omission of medication (36.4%). In the univariate analysis, age (OR=1.03 [95% CI 1.02:1.04] p<0.001) and number of pre-admission medications taken (OR=1.13 [95%CI 1.09:1.17] p<0.001) were revealed to be significantly associated with the risk of medication discrepancies. Sex, type of medical specialty, and surgical versus non-surgical specialty were found not to be significantly associated with discrepancies. In the multivariate analysis, both the number of pre-admission medications (OR=1.10 [95%CI 1.06:1.15] p<0.001) and age (OR=1.02 [95%CI 1.01:1.03] p=0.004) were independently associated with the risk of medication discrepancy.Conclusions:Of the total number of patients, 11.7% experienced one or more medication discrepancies following admission to the hospital. Elderly patients taking multiple drugs were found to be particularly at risk.

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BackgroundThe gold standard for cobalamin deficiency treatment is administration of cobalamin by intramuscular injection. The injection is painful and inconvenient, particularly for elderly persons. Cobalamin might also be administered intranasally. Previous studies do not provide insight into the pharmacokinetics of intranasal cobalamin administration in comparison with cobalamin injection.AimTo quantify the pharmacokinetics of intranasally and intramuscularly administered cobalamin to determine if intranasal administration might be an alternative for intramuscular administration.MethodsTen inpatients and outpatients of a geriatrics unit were recruited and randomly assigned to receive a single dose of 1000 μg cobalamin administered either by intranasal spray or intramuscular injection (5 per group). Inclusion criteria were written informed consent, age >65 years, and a cobalamin serum concentration <200 pmol/L. Total cobalamin serum concentrations were determined 10 times within 48 hours after administration. The differences in Cmax, Tmax, and AUC0–48 h per administration route were statistically compared using ANOVA.ResultsThe average Cmax was 1 nmol/L after intranasal and 38.5 nmol/L after intramuscular administration. The average Tmax for intranasal and intramuscular administration was 42 minutes versus 342 minutes, respectively, and the AUC0–48 h was 1.3 µmol/L/min versus 45.4 µmol/L/min, respectively. These values also differed significantly (P<0.05). The estimated bioavailability of the intranasal administration was 2%.ConclusionsThe pharmacokinetics of intranasal and intramuscular cobalamin administration in elderly, cobalamin-deficient patients differ significantly. However, the estimated 2% bioavailability of cobalamin after intranasal administration makes intranasal cobalamin administration a potentially interesting administration route for elderly patients. Netherlands Trial Registry identifier: NTR 3005.

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