Investigations into the pharmaceutical issues associated with the co-administration of IV medicines via Y-sites

The treatment of patients within hospital can be complicated by the need to administer multiple medicines. In many cases, it is not appropriate to administer these enterally and so the parenteral route of delivery becomes important. This is especially true in intensive care where patients have non-functioning guts, necessitating administration of medication by the intravenous (IV) route. When more than one medicine requires administration at the same time, it is often necessary to administer through a single IV line using a Y-site (medicines given via a single line then mixed together via a connector (the Y-site) before flowing into the patient). The co-administration of such medicines poses risks to patients such as:

• Physical incompatibility leading to the formation of precipitates that could potentially lead to occlusion of blood vessels
• Chemical degradation causing sub-therapeutic doses, preventing the patient from getting the right quantity of medicines they require
• Formation of potentially harmful by-products

This project will use HPLC and physical analysis techniques to determine the physico-chemical stability of intravenous medicines commonly co-administered via Y-site. The student would make recommendations to NHS contacts based on the results their findings.