EAHP represents over 30,000 hospital pharmacists across 37 member countries. EAHP represents and develops the hospital pharmacy profession within Europe in order to ensure the continuous improvement of care and outcomes for patients in the hospital setting. This is achieved through science, research, education, practice, as well as sharing best-practice and responsibility with other healthcare professional
The EAHP Board, elected for three-year terms, oversees the association’s activities. Comprising directors responsible for core functions, it meets regularly to implement strategic goals. Supported by EAHP staff, the Board controls finances, coordinates congress organization, and ensures compliance with statutes and codes of conduct.
The EAHP staff supports the Board in executing EAHP’s mission. The Staff assists in financial management, events organisations, policy activities and all EAHP projects. The EAHP staff works closely with EAHP’s members and ensures the effective communication all relevant stakeholders.
The first member countries were Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, the Federal Republic, Germany, Italy and The Netherlands in 1972. EAHP has now 36 EAHP members and 2 Associate Members. EAHP is open to countries members of the Council of Europe and since 2022 to organisations representing the interests of hospital pharmacists from outside the Council of Europe (Associate Membership)
EAHP’s structure is also composed by different standing committes: EAHP Scientific Committee, EAHP Education Executive Committee and the EAHP CTF Steering Committee.
At EAHP, we are committed to transparency in our governance, ethical standards, and funding practices. This section provides open access to our foundational documents, including the EAHP Statutes, Code of Conduct, and Funding Sources. By sharing these resources, we aim to uphold accountability and foster trust with our members, partners, and the public.
Keep up with all EAHP’s events and webinars. Contact the team at info@eahp.eu should you have any questions about upcoming events or activities.
Here you can find all upcoming events organised by EAHP and by all its members and associate members. Do not hesitate to contact the events team at events@eahp.eu should you have any questions about the organisation of these events.
Hospital pharmacists conduct a critical role in the care of patients in hospitals. Learn more about what they do here and in all the pages under Hospital Pharmacy practice and Policy.
Self-Assessment
SILCC
Closed SIGs
EAHP brings together experts from many areas of hospital pharmacy practice providing and highlighting good local sustainable practices as that can be up-scaled and shared with other countries. The EAHP Working Group on Sustainability has the aim of reducing the environmental burden of the hospital pharmacy services.
The European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP), and its 36 member country platforms are creating a Common Training Framework for the hospital pharmacy education in Europe. The goal of this project is to allow the free movement of hospital pharmacists within the European Union.
The European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) and the European Society of Clinical Pharmacy (ESCP) have collaboratively developed the Oath to Society. The Oath to Society is all encompassing and acts as a contract for excellence in providing compassionate patient care, working as part of the healthcare team and advancing the pharmacy profession, and showcasing how clinical and hospital pharmacists work every day
A day created to highlight the importance and to celebrate the work done by hospital pharmacies. This day celebrates all hospital pharmacy teams.
The Early Career Network aims to empower early-career pharmacists by sharing opportunities, insights, and success stories from across 25 member countries.
Together, we’re building a stronger, more connected hospital pharmacy community: one story, one country, one pharmacist at a time.
Catch up with EAHP’s press releases
Find all EAHP relevant publication like the EAHP Surveys, annual reports and the history books.
The European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy (EJHP) is the only official journal of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) and is committed to advancing the science, practice and profession of hospital pharmacy. As the premier communication platform for hospital pharmacists worldwide, EJHP is a major source for continuing education as well as updates on advances in the practice and standard of pharmaceutical care for patients.
When EAHP and Hospital pharmacists appear in the news.
EAHP publishes a monthly EU monitor with updates about the latest EAHP initiatives and information relevant for the hospital pharmacy profession.
The Sponsor Channel is designed to maximise visibility and engagement, allowing sponsors to connect with the hospital pharmacy community and partners in a dynamic and interactive environment. From product demonstrations to networking sessions, the Sponsor Channel offers a range of opportunities for sponsors to showcase their offerings and generate leads in the new EAHP Website.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Arnela Boskovic
Gitte Stampe Hansen
To ensure rational use of medicines during the acute phase of illness, an interdisciplinary group consisting of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and the Hospital Pharmacy was initiated to determine if some medicines could be paused during shorter hospital admissions at The Medical Acute Care Unit, Bispebjerg Hospital.
Patients in acute phase of illness may experience fatigue, nausea, swallowing difficulties, and cognitive challenges when faced with large amounts of oral medicine. Therefore, prioritizing life-critical medicines during hospitalization is essential, while non-critical medicines could temporarily be paused. Additionally, there is often medicine waste, where drugs are assumed to be administered but remain untouched on the bedside table. In acute care units with complex patients, optimizing nursing time, shelf space in the medicine room and managing costs is crucial for appropriate medication.
Information about the new practice was given via newsletters, oral presentations, and signs at the doctor offices and in the medicine room. The group identified statins, multivitamins and calcium supplements as non-critical, and these were hereafter removed from the shelves in the medicine room. The interdisciplinary division of roles were as follows; Physicians: Prescribe critical medicine and temporarily pause non-critical medicine; Nurses: Do not administer statins, multivitamins, or calcium supplements. If the prescription has not been paused, request the physician to do so; Pharmacists: Assist in pausing non-critical medicines; Hospital Pharmacy: Ensure availability of the correct medicine in the medicine room.
Temporarily pausing statins, multivitamins, and calcium supplements during short hospitalization led to minimizing medicine waste and freed up time for the nurses to do other nurse-specific tasks. Medicine administrations by nurses were reduced by 87-96%. It also resulted in optimized space in the medicine room, making space for more critical medicine such as medicines to treat epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease.
Expanding the list of non-critical medicine during short hospitalizations is in the pipeline. This will be done by interdisciplinary collaboration and will free up time for the nurses and doctors to focus on the acute care of the patient.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Christina Anastasiadou – Lead Pharmacist Acute & Emergency Medicine
Karen Dicks – Chief Pharmacy Technician Medicines Management
Radhika Patel – Pharmacy Technician MMS
Until October 2023, the A&E department in Croydon University Hospital in London lacked a full-time pharmacy service, unlike other London trusts. This has contributed to suboptimal medicine management and a delay in the identification of prescribing errors. This has resulted in longer stays, missed medication doses, and a rise in patient safety incidences. At a hospital level this reduces flow and increases cost due to medication wastage. Ultimately, the aim is to improve the flow of patients within the hospital via timely medicines provision, early clinical pharmacy intervention and early discharge planning.
We have obtained funding from the Better Care Fund for a period of 2 years. This funding is aimed at assisting local systems in effectively achieving the integration of health and social care in a manner that promotes person-centred care, sustainability, and improved outcomes for individuals and caregivers. Therefore, we introduced a full-time pharmacy service including one pharmacist and two medicines management technicians (MMTs)—one full-time and one part-time. This initiative was implemented as a 2-year trial period, using key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate its effectiveness.
Data has been collected against the below KPIS:
1) Number of drug histories completed on admission, before patient is allocated a ward (by MMT or pharmacist) per calendar month.
2) Number of medicines reconciliations completed (by pharmacist) per calendar month.
3) Number of clinical interventions completed by all members of the pharmacy team.
4) Savings secondary to the use of patient’s own drugs (PODs) brought from home for administration to reduce medicines wastage.
5) Savings due to the return of medicines to inpatient pharmacy for re-use from other patients when appropriate.
6) Time between request of medicines from pharmacy dispensary and medicine being dispensed, checked and released to A&E.
7) Review of stock lists in all areas in A&E.
8) Reduction in omitted doses.
9) Discharge medicines supply and screening from A&E to streamline discharge.
10) Number of patients counselled on their medicines and provided with patient-friendly information on them.
11) Number of referrals to community teams i.e allocated chemist via Discharge Medicines Service, Integrated Care Network (ICN) pharmacists or specialty teams (i.e anticoagulation clinic for newly initiated anticoagulant) to provide continuation of care.
12) Liaising with specialty teams within the hospital to expedite review and treatment in a time efficient and cost-effective way.
The current pharmacy team is fully integrated into the A&E service and has contributed significantly towards advancing patient experience, via early pharmacy engagement with patients. During the first 10 months of the project, we have data to show:
1) A 540% increase in drug histories and medicines reconciliation on admission.
2) A 19.525% increase in clinical interventions and early detection of medication errors.
3) We have completed 5 teaching sessions so far, in order to tackle common prescribing and medicines management inaccuracies and embedding solutions into nurses and doctors training.
4) We have contributed towards the reduction in omitted doses by 6%.
Positive contribution towards tackling medicines wastage has been shown too. Our team contributed towards saving £13.110 from April to September 2024 by using PODs for administration in hospital and £10.483 by returning dispensed medications to the inpatient pharmacy for recycling and use for other patients for the same time period.
In addition, the team has completed 66 referrals to the community pharmacy team for follow up on newly started medicines, stopped medicines, adherence concerns and polypharmacy. This is in order to provide continuous care and establish follow-up after discharge from hospital.
All in all, improved safe patients flow in and out of hospital.
Work towards a business case for a permanent pharmacy service in A&E, to continue further developing the above. Utilise all the skills our MMTs hold, in order to continue working on patient safety, improved flow and cost improvement plans. Introduce a pharmacist-prescriber who will be able to tackle arising problems as soon as possible and provide high quality care in liaison with doctors, nurses and advanced care practitioners.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Eva Gómez-Costa; María Begoña Feal-Cortizas; María Mateos-Salvador; Sandra Rotea-Salvo; Andrea Luaces-Rodríguez; Laura Caeiro-Martínez; Clara Fernández-Diz; Andrés Torres-Pérez; Luis Margusino-Framiñán; María Isabel Martín-Herranz
Implementation of a circuit for the preparation and dispensing of elastomeric infusion pumps (EIPs) prepared in a Hospital Pharmacy Service, designed for the continuous intravenous administration of antimicrobial agents in coordination with Home Hospitalization Units (HHU).
The purpose of this initiative is to provide an effective and safe alternative for treating infections in patients who would otherwise require prolonged hospital stays. The use of EIPs improves patients’ quality of life and reduces treatment costs by decreasing hospital admissions.
The Pharmacy Service contributed to the development of this initiative by studying the stability of antimicrobial agents in the EIPs, determining dilution volumes based on the maximum possible concentration, and assessing storage conditions, among other factors. The appropriate EIP was selected for each antibiotic to ensure effective and safe infusion rates. EIPs are prepared in laminar flow hoods to maintain a sterile environment during medication preparation. Additionally, educational materials for healthcare professionals were developed, and training sessions were conducted for HHU staff.
In 2023, a total of 2,223 EIPs were prepared to treat 123 patients, resulting in a reduction of 1,426 hospital days. Compared to previous years, there was a 243% increase in the number of infusers and a 131% increase in the number of patients between 2017 and 2019. Between 2019 and 2023, there was an 11.9% increase in infusers and a 36.7% increase in patients.
The antimicrobials used were: meropenem (59.6%), piperacillin/tazobactam (19.9%), cefazolin (6.8%), ceftazidime (5.6%), ceftaroline (2.2%), penicillin G (2.1%), tobramycin (1.5%), ampicillin (0.7%), acyclovir (0.6%), ceftolozane/tazobactam (0.6%), and ceftriaxone (0.4%).
Future research is expected to expand on the efficacy and safety of this methodology by studying stability times at different concentrations of agents antimicrobials to establish a sustainable model that can benefit an increasing number of patients. Additionally, patient surveys will be conducted to gather insights into their experiences and enhance their quality of life.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
G.A. Vairani, B. Faitelli, B. Crivelli, F. Pieri
An appropriate nutrition is a therapeutic intervention that improves clinical outcomes for each patient by reducing or preventing complications such as pressure ulcers and infections. The goal of the Hospital Pharmacy is to provide therapeutic monitoring for all nutritional therapies prescribed in the hospital and to support the optimization of pharmacological therapies associated with the specific nutrition plan. The formulary provides Physicians and Dietitians a view of the dietary products available in the hospital, allowing them to select the most suitable product based on the patient’s clinical condition. The structured request form is a valuable tool to verify that there are no pharmacological interactions between the chosen dietary product and the patient’s ongoing medications. Furthermore, it ensures that a dietitian is consulted for every prescription.
A multidisciplinary team was established, including Dietitians, Hospital pharmacists, and Physicians, to ensure adequate and safe nutritional support for each patient. The hospital pharmacy developed a formulary of available dietary products categorized into parenteral nutrition, enteral nutrition, and oral nutrition supplements. Additionally, a customized request form for nutritional products was created. After the approval of dietitians, hospital pharmacists can proceed with dispensing, ensuring controlled distribution to hospital departments.
The Hospital Pharmacy first consulted with dietitians to add or remove specific dietary products from the Therapeutic Formulary, based on the most frequently treated pathologies and clinical cases. Once the products to be stocked were defined, a manual was created, listing the names, nutrient types, and administration methods for each dietary product.
For the structured request, the mandatory fields to be filled in are: patient’s identity , dietary product, dosage and duration of treatment and the dietitian’s signature.
The structured request form and the Dietary Products Manual allowed us to have a comprehensive overview of the number of patients treated with a specific dietary product and to monitor prescriptions in general, ensuring the best possible clinical outcome.
The Hospital Pharmacy will organize training days with dietitians on the selection of the most appropriate dietary product for each patient, as well as the correct handling and administration of these products.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Sanjuan-Casanova, Iria; Cerdeira-Regueira, Elena; Fernández-Oliveira, Carla; Lago-Rivero, Natividad; Iglesias-Moreno, Jose Manuel; Alfonsín-Lara, María; Agra-Blanco, Iván, Martínez-López De Castro, Noemí.
Dysphagia is a swallowing disorder that affects patients’ safety and quality of life. Within our healthcare area, patients regularly come to the Hospital Pharmacy Service (HPS) for nutritional assessments and dispensing of thickeners. This results in an increasing workload and the need for patients to come to the hospital. This presents an actual challenge particularly since many of them have reduced mobility. The establishment of EspesaNet aimed to reduce waiting times, to facilitate dispensing at other care points and to improve patients’ quality of life.
A dispensing circuit for thickeners, EspesaNet, was implemented. We established an interdisciplinary, comprehensive and continuous care system for patients with dysphagia through the decentralization of nutritional follow-up, adjustment of pharmacological treatment, and dispensing of thickeners in health centers (HC) via primary care pharmacists (PCP).
The implementation of EspesaNet was achieved through the establishment of a multidisciplinary work team, the creation of a theoretical-practical training program from the HPS (which included three training sessions of two hours each), and a communication network through e-consultations between HPS and PCP.
From February to June 2024, 22 HC and 56 patients (12 with reduced mobility) were enrolled in the project. After the initial nutritional assessment (conducted via home visits and teleconsultations for immobilized patients) and with the premise of not requiring additional nutritional intervention, patients were referred via e-consultation to the PCP for ongoing follow-up and subsequent dispensing of the thickener.
The implementation of the circuit has resulted in:
-Access for all involved professionals to e-consultations and the electronic prescription software (Silicon®).
-Safekeeping of all patients’ clinical information in a single electronic medical record (Ianus®).
-Establishment of a remote evaluation service for immobilized patients.
-Development of standardized treatment adjustment criteria.
-Completion of 56 e-consultations
-An estimated savings of 2400 kilometers in travel distance for a single dispensing via FAP.
EspesaNet, since its implementation, has provided numerous benefits for patients and professionals. Our goal is to reach more HC, ensuring the correct identification and follow-up of patients with dysphagia. Moreover, we aim to facilitate patients’ collection of thickeners and improve their access to information and better-trained professionals.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
K. Joyce, D. Jukes, F. Stewart
In 2023, the drug formularies across Northeast and North Cumbria integrated care system were merged, with amiodarone allocated an ‘amber’ shared care status.
NHS England guidance recommends that existing patients taking amiodarone in primary care should be reviewed to ensure prescribing remains safe and appropriate and that a shared care agreement is introduced.
The pharmacy team aimed to implement this guidance, with minimum impact on clinician workload. The approach was steered by NHS England’s comments, in June 2024, regarding the importance of teams working together to meet the pressures and demands of primary and secondary care under the direction of the integrated care board (ICB).
County Durham and Darlington Foundation Trust (CDDFT) pharmacy team worked collaboratively across the primary-secondary care interface to implement shared care agreements.
The ICB medicines optimisation team worked with the CDDFT pharmacists to engage GPs and cardiologists across the interface, creating a work-plan to share resources.
An audit tool was designed to capture patients prescribed amiodarone in the 61 GP practices across County Durham, which was completed by pharmacy staff within primary care networks.
Cardiology pharmacists in secondary care reviewed the data, triaging patients according to: indication, monitoring requirements, those requiring consultant review and those who could potentially stop treatment.
The audit, returning data for 129 patients, identified 93 patients without shared care. For half of these, discontinuation was considered as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence explicitly recommends against use in atrial fibrillation. For the remaining, shared care agreements have been implemented with minimal impact on clinician time, primary care capacity and secondary care referrals.
The audit found 21% of patients without a shared care agreement were not receiving the recommended monitoring, compared to 100% receiving correct monitoring when one was in place. It may be anticipated that implementation will improve patient safety and experience through detection and avoidance of adverse events.
This initiative demonstrates the ICB and pharmacy successfully bridging care settings to improve patient care and experience and overcome challenges.
Building on these established relationships across the interface this work provides a model for sustainable collaboration on future shared care work.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Elena Blanco Saiz
It is estimated that over 80% of patients receiving treatment with cetuximab experience acneiform eruptions and/or skin dryness and flaking. Approximately 15% of these cutaneous reactions are severe, including cases of skin necrosis.
These skin lesions may predispose patients to secondary infections, potentially leading to complications such as cellulitis, erysipelas, staphylococcal scalded skin syndrome, necrotizing fasciitis, or sepsis, which can result in death.
A kit consisting of an alcohol-free moisturizing cream, an alcohol-free gel, and a sunscreen with a sun protection factor of 100 was provided to patients undergoing treatment with cetuximab for daily skin care.
When the oncology department prescribes cetuximab, the patient is informed that a kit will soon be dispensed.
The pharmacy service reviews daily the patients who will initiate treatment with cetuximab in the day treatment center. If there is a patient starting treatment, nursing staff notify us when they arrive at the center, and the pharmacy dispenses a kit while explaining its contents.
We periodically call the patient to check whether they are continuing to use it correctly, if they have noticed any changes in their skin, what changes they have observed, and whether they have needed to take antibiotics and/or topical corticosteroids.
• To date, the kit has been dispensed to 21 patients undergoing treatment with cetuximab.
• It empowers patients by actively involving them in their care.
• It prioritizes the overall well-being of the patient, as it may prevent the onset of dermatological side effects and the use of topical corticosteroids and oral antibiotics.
• The process facilitates the pharmacist’s engagement with the patient in the day treatment center and throughout the treatment, allowing for addressing concerns, answering questions, and providing information about adverse effects.
• It promotes the creation of a multidisciplinary team by involving collaboration between oncology, nursing, and pharmacy.
We present a practical approach that enhances patient safety during the oncology process.
This practice can be adopted by any center.
It is necessary to continue collecting data to obtain reliable results regarding its impact on improving patient safety.
Selection, Procurement and Distribution
A. KANDEL (1), L. CABRIT (1), C. HUMARAUT (1), A. MASSRI (2), C. TAILHADES (1), S. ARRAKI ZAVA (1), V. GRENOUILLEAU (1)
(1) Pharmacy Department, Medical Devices Unit, Pau Hospital Center, France
(2) Intensive care unit, Pau Hospital Center, France
Medical devices (MDs) and drugs account for 55% of the carbon footprint of a hospital’s French healthcare system, making this sector a key focus for the ecological transition. The MD sector alone is responsible for 32% of our hospital’s CO2 emissions, underlining the need to rethink our practices in order to reduce our environmental impact.
Elimination of waste produced unnecessarily by optimising customised packs (CP) containing the MD required for treatment.
After a multidisciplinary team (pharmacists, intensive care units, anaesthetists, nurses) was put together, packs containing unused medical devices (UMD) were identified in 2 pilot departments: anaesthesia and intensive care. The packs were weighed with and without the UMD. The savings in terms of waste weight and carbon footprint were calculated according to the type of waste: general waste or biohazardous waste. In conjunction with the medical teams and suppliers, the re-evaluation of the MD required and the withdrawal of UMDs led to the updating of CP in the pilot departments.
The packs identified include: the suture pack (SP), the central venous line pack (CVL) and the epidural pack (EP). Over one year, the weight of waste avoided was: 64 kg for the SP, 87 kg for the CVL pack, 55 kg for the EP. After modifying these packs, annual CO2 emissions were reduced by 55% for the SP, 14% for the CVL pack and 8% for the EP, with a total annual saving of €5,423. The annual weight of waste was reduced by 206 kg, a saving of 92 kg of CO2: the equivalent of 86 Paris-London train journeys.
The re-evaluation of CP can generate a significant ecological impact. This initiative is intended to be rolled out on an institutional scale, with the active collaboration of the sustainable development department, and as part of future calls for tender. These adjustments save time for care staff, significantly reduce the carbon footprint, and contribute to the ecological transition. It is essential to strike a balance between economic and environmental imperatives, given the financial constraints facing public hospitals.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Diana Monteiro
Luísa Álvares
Sara Brandão Madureira
Patrocínia Rocha
The confirmation of a clinical diagnosis of brain death requires the demonstration of the cessation of brainstem functions and their irreversibility. Therefore, when this evaluation is incomplete or unreliable, it is necessary to support this diagnosis using diagnostic tests such as brain perfusion SPECT. This is performed after the injection of the radiopharmaceutical technetium-99m hexamethylpropyleneamine oxime (99mTc-HMPAO) and by assessing the obtained images for the lack of cerebral perfusion to confirm the diagnosis.
Given the importance of reliable results, a high radiochemical purity of 99mTc-HMPAO is imperative in quality control to prevent false positives.
Selection of a method to evaluate the radiochemical purity of 99mTc-HMPAO.
A literature review was conducted to select the most suitable method for the conditions existing in the institution. The research focused on the Summary of Product Characteristics (SmPC), the European Pharmacopoeia (Ph. Eur. 11.0), the United States Pharmacopeia (USP 42) and several published articles.
After selecting the method, three assays were performed to validate it.
For evaluating the radiochemical purity of 99mTc-HMPAO, both the SmPC and Ph.Eur. 11.0 recommend a combination of two thin-layer chromatography (TLC) methods with a high-dimension stationary phase, for which the institution does not have a chromatographic tank.
The USP 42 describes a combination of three TLC methods, using acetonitrile as the mobile phase, which is also unavailable at the institution.
In contrast, the miniaturized method by Fuente et al. uses two TLC methods, with a silica gel stationary phase and sodium chloride (0.9%) and methyl ethyl ketone as mobile phases. This method was selected given that the institution has the required phases, the stationary phase dimensions are suitable for the available chromatography tanks and the execution time for the assay is feasible.
For method validation, three assays were conducted, yielding values exceeding 80% (the reference value).
The selected method represents a rapid, reproducible and reliable alternative for evaluating the radiochemical purity of 99mTc-HMPAO. It was implemented in the institution in October 2022.
In the future, we aim to develop quality control methods for all radiopharmaceuticals in use at the institution, in order to guaranty the quality of all the exams performed.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Luísa Álvares
Sara Brandão Madureira
Diana Monteiro
Patrocínia Rocha
Lutetium (177Lu) oxodotreotide is indicated for treating subtype 2 somatostatin receptor-positive (SSTR2) gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, well-differentiated G1 and G2, progressive, inoperable or metastatic. This radiopharmaceutical targets cells with SSTR2 overexpression, emitting radiation that causes cell death.
Initially, the Summary of Product Characteristics (SmPC) included the gravity method for intravenous administration, using a system with two needles, one connected to a NaCl 0.9% solution, with or without a perfusion pump, using gravity to facilitate the flow of the radiopharmaceutical.
This method was adopted and optimized due to incidents during administration.
Optimization of the administration method of lutetium (177Lu) oxodotreotide to maximize the administered radioactivity and enhance protection for healthcare professionals.
The first administration using the described method occurred in October 2022.
Subsequent treatments required transferring the radiopharmaceutical to a syringe and using a syringe pump due to incidents during administration.
A perfusion pump was later introduced to manage the flow of NaCl 0.9% solution.
In May 2024, a three-way stopcock was connected to the short needle.
Since October 2022, 23 administrations have been conducted. In the first, the percentage of remaining radioactivity in the vial was 2.19%.
The use of a syringe pump increased handling and exposure risks and was rejected due to the lack of protective barriers.
Adding a perfusion pump to the NaCl 0.9% line didn’t fully resolve perfusion issues. This was resolve by adding a three-way stopcock connected to the short needle. The additional third line allows for a syringe to be attached and force air into the system, promoting the radiopharmaceutical flow.
The average remaining radioactivity improved from 1.71% to 0.98% after final optimization.
No incidents, such as leaks or perfusion issues, occurred after optimization.
This optimization reduced the remaining radiopharmaceutical activity values, ensuring complete administration. It also minimizes professional exposure and contamination risks, as the radiopharmaceutical remains in the original vial, as indicated in the SmPC.
We aim to apply this optimized method in other treatments with the same radionuclide.
