Y-site compatibility of intravenous medications commonly used in intensive care units: laboratory tests on 75 mixtures involving nine main drugs

Abstract

Patients hospitalized in intensive care units often require multiple drug infusions. Due to limited intravenous accesses, concomitant administration of drugs in the same infusion line is often necessary. Compatibility studies of Y-site administration are available in the literature, but data of several combinations are lacking. Previous work from d’Huart et al. have performed an observation of the administration of injectable drugs in three adults ICUs and identified a list of Y-site administration without compatibility data. The objective of this study was to test the physical compatibility of the main drugs of this list used in pairs in Y-site infusions in critical care units, in order to provide new compatibility data to the literature, and to secure the administration of intravenous drugs.

Keywords

• intensive care units
• intravenous
• physical compatibility
• y-site infusion