Robbie's quite right. The potency and speed of degradation of drugs that
"need" to be refrigerated is often overstated, for example, suxamethonium
will retain 90% of its activity up to 3 months outside of the fridge. Most
anaesthetists start gibbering if its been out of the fridge for a day.
(I say that as a current anaesthetist!)
Rob Dawes
-----Original Message-----
From: Accident and Emergency Academic List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Robbie Coull
Sent: 22 August 2003 19:43
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: keeping tetanus cold on car units
> I am exploring a way to keep Tetanus vials between 2 and 8 degrees celcius
> in a Rapid Response Paramedic Unit (car).
> The unit must be VERY small and take into account fluctuations in outside
> ambient temperature and overstretched battery systems that occasionally
> fail.
Mike,
two options:
1. Fit a fridge to the car
I'd recommend fitting a slave battery to the car (I think this means having
2 car batteries, both are charged from the alternator, one is only used to
start the car and the other runs the auxiliary units).
Anyway, it means that you can plug in a small fridge unit and have it draw
power when you are out of the vehicle without affecting your ability to
start the car.
2. Check with the manufacturers how long you can keep the drug
unrefrigerated before it loses it potency
- for example, sux and synto can be kept for a couple of weeks (?1 month) at
ambient temps.
This means replacing your stock on a regular basis (expensive), and I would
keep the items in a 'cool bag' in a cool part of the vehicle to avoid frying
the drugs in summer.
--
Robbie Coull
email: [log in to unmask] website: http://www.coull.net
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