Strategies to Manage and Prevention of the Look- Alike and Sound-Alike (LASA) Drugs Associated Medication Errors: A Review (original) (raw)
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Medication Errors Associated with Look-alike/Sound-alike Drugs: A Brief Review
Journal of Enam Medical College, 2015
The existence of confusing drug names is one of the most common causes of medication errors. There are many types of medication errors: wrong drug, wrong dose, wrong route of administration, wrong patient etc. Misreading medication names that look similar is a common mistake. These look-alike medication names may also sound alike and can lead to errors associated with verbal prescriptions. Similar sounding drugs may produce confusion and may lead to unintended interchange of drugs causing harm to patients or even patient death. The main aim of the study was to evaluate medication errors related to look alikesound alike drug names and to find out the strategies to prevent these medication errors.
International Journal of Basic & Clinical Pharmacology, 2019
Background: With thousands of drugs currently in the market, the potential for medication errors due to confusing drug names amongst practising physicians, pharmacists and patients is significant. The existence of confusing drug names is one of the most common causes of medication error. There are many look-alikes, sound-alike (LASA) combinations that could potentially result in medication errors. There is insufficient data about medication errors due to LASA. Hence, we conducted the present study to determine the degree of awareness regarding LASA drugs among post graduate medical physicians and Pharmacists.Methods: This study was a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based survey, conducted among 137 year post graduate medical residents of a tertiary care teaching hospital and 121 local pharmacists in an urban metropolitan Indian city.Results: There were 34% resident doctors and 17% pharmacists were aware of concept of LASA drugs. Only 46% resident doctors and 22% pharmacists had knowl...
Medical errors related to look-alike and sound-alike drugs
Anaesth Pain Intensive Care, 2013
Despite recent developments in the inventory management, introduction of electronic drug trolleys and cabinets, color coding of the filled syringes and many more interventions, medication errors could not be eliminated. The most common of these are syringe swap and human errors regarding wrong drug administration due to look-alike drug containers or sound-alike names of the drugs belonging to diverse groups. Many of the fatalities, that occur in third world countries due to these causes, go unnoticed and unregistered. This special article complements two special editorials on the same topic by Professor Joseph D. Tobias et al and Professor Robert Stoelting, a case report, a patient's perspective and a 'Cliniquiz' being published in the current issue of the journal. It discusses salient features of this issue as well as preventive measures and recommendations.
Quality Use of Medicines–medication safety issues in naming; look‐alike, sound‐alike medicine names
International …, 2012
Objective To review current literature with the objective of developing strategies and recommendations to enhance patient safety and minimise clinical issues with look-alike, sound-alike medication names. Methods A comprehensive search of the PubMed database and an Australian online repository of Quality Use of Medicines projects was conducted to identify publications addressing look-alike, sound-alike medication problems. Author networks, grey literature and the reference lists of published articles were also used to identify additional material. Key findings Thirty-two publications describing the extent of the specific problem and recommending solutions were identified. The majority of these publications provided a qualitative assessment of the issues, with few quantitative estimates of the severity of the problem and very little intervention research. As a result, most recommendations for addressing the problem are the result of expert deliberations and not experimental research. This will affect the capacity of the recommendations to ameliorate and resolve problems caused by look-alike, sound-alike medication names. Themes identified from articles included the nature and causes of look-alike, soundalike problems, potential solutions and recommendations. Conclusions There are many existing medications which can potentially cause clinical issues due to mix-ups because of similar sounding or looking medication names. This confusion can be lethal for some medication errors. A multifaceted, integrated approach involving all aspects of the medication use process, from initial naming of INN through to consumer education, is suggested to minimise this issue for medication safety.
Exploring the potential for using drug indications to prevent look-alike and sound-alike drug errors
Expert Opinion on Drug Safety, 2017
Background. Look-alike, sound-alike (LASA) drug names are a cause of medication errors with resulting patient harm and healthcare costs. This study assessed to which extent the use of the generic drug name, therapeutic class, health problem, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved indications might be used to differentiate LASA drug pairs. Research design and methods. We collected information about LASA drug pairs reported by the FDA to have look-alike sound-alike similarities. To assess potential for differentiating LASA drug pairs, we compared the following drug characteristics: generic name, therapeutic class, health problem, and FDA-approved indication. Results. For the 33 FDA reported LASA drug pairs we identified a total of 432 FDA-approved indications. Using the generic name, therapeutic class, health problem and drug indication we were able to differentiate 8 (24.2%), 24 (72.7%), 25 (75.8%) and 26 (78.8%), respectively of the 33 LASA drug pairs. Using the generic name, therapeutic class, and health problem we were able to distinguish 31 (7.2%), 212 (49.1%), and 269 (62.3%), respectively of the 432 FDA-approved indications for the LASA drug pairs. Conclusions. Including the FDA-approved indication in the drug prescription may be used to differentiate LASA drug pairs and thus, prevent wrong drug medication errors.
The survey of look alike/sound alike (LASA) drugs available in hospitals in Thailand
African journal of pharmacy and pharmacology
A cross-sectional survey was designed to study look-alike, sound-alike (LASA) drugs in hospitals in Thailand. The questionnaires were developed and mailed to 1,380 hospitals throughout Thailand. The return rate was 11.16% or 154 hospitals, consisting of 5 tertiary hospitals (3.25%), 3 university hospitals (1.95%), 16 secondary hospitals (10.39%), 96 primary hospitals (62.34%), 26 private hospitals (16.88%) and 8 others (5.20%). A total of 5,327 pairs of drugs were identified as LASA drugs, including 3,695 tablets/capsules (Ranitidine-Roxithromycin pair in the highest frequency), 944 injections (Diazepam-Furosemide pair in the highest frequency), 307 liquid dosage forms (Alum milk-Milk of magnesia pair in the highest frequency), 367 external drugs (0.02% Triamcinolone cream and 0.1% Triamcinolone cream pair in the highest frequency) and 14 pairs of chemotherapeutic agents. This LASA report could be integrated into a suitable program used in hospitals in order to identify and prevent medication errors in the future.
International Medical Case Reports Journal, 2015
A 59-year-old man was mistakenly prescribed Slow-Na instead of Slow-K due to incorrect selection from a drop-down list in the prescribing software. This error was identified by a pharmacist during a home medicine review (HMR) before the patient began taking the supplement. The reported error emphasizes the need for vigilance due to the emergence of novel look-alike, sound-alike (LASA) drug pairings. This case highlights the important role of pharmacists in medication safety.
International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Research, 2018
Dispensing errors are one of the major problems in bothdeveloped and developing countries. It is common scenario inhospital pharmacy as well as retail pharmacy shop. Patient’scompliance hampers dramatically when wrong medicines aredispensed. Lack of knowledge, stress because of excessiveworkload, mislabeling, misjudgment etc. are the major causesbehind this problem. Look-a-like and sound-a-like products(LASA) are in mainstream which is one of the main reasons ofdispensing errors. Proper care and attention should be takenregarding dispensing of LASA products. The aim of the presentstudy is to find out the main reasons for this problem and somesolutions that may be adapted to solve this problem. (1) (PDF) Dispensing Errors Associated with Look-A-Like and Sound-A-Like Products and Remedies; Current Status and Prevention Strategies. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324275549\_Dispensing\_Errors\_Associated\_with\_Look-A-Like\_and\_Sound-A-Like\_Products\_and\_Remedies\_Current\_Status\_and\_Prevention\_Strategies [accessed Apr 06 2022].
Journal of Pharmaceutical Health Care and Sciences, 2015
Background: There are many reports regarding various medical institutions' attempts at incident prevention, but the relationship between incident types and impact on patients in drug name errors has not been studied. Therefore, we analyzed the relationship between them, while also assessing the relationship between preparation and inspection errors. Furthermore, the present study aimed to clarify the incident types that lead to severe patient damage. Methods: The investigation object in this study was restricted to "drug name errors", preparation and inspection errors in them were classified into three categories (similarity of drug efficacy, similarity of drug name, similarity of drug appearance) or two groups (drug efficacy similarity (+) group, drug efficacy similarity (−) group). Then, the relationship between preparation and inspection errors was investigated in three categories, the relationship between incident types and impact on patients was examined in two groups. Results: The frequency of preparation errors was liable to be caused by the following order: similarity of drug efficacy > similarity of drug name > similarity of drug appearance. In contrast, the rate of inspection errors was liable to be caused by the following order: similarity of drug efficacy < similarity of drug name < similarity of drug appearance. In addition, the number of preparation errors in the drug efficacy similarity (−) group was fewer than that in the drug efficacy similarity (+) group. However, the rate of inspection errors in the drug efficacy similarity (−) group was significantly higher than that in the drug efficacy similarity (+) group. Furthermore, the occupancy rate of preparation errors, incidents more than Level 0, 1, and 2 in the drug efficacy similarity (−) group increased gradually according to the rise of patient damage. Conclusions: Our results suggest that preparation errors caused by the similarity of drug appearance and/or drug name are likely to lead to the incidents (inspection errors), and these incidents are likely to cause severe damage to patients subsequently.