title: Medication wrong route administration: a poisons center-based study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe clinical effects, circumstances of occurrence, management and outcomes of cases of inadvertent administration of medications by an incorrect parenteral route.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective single-center consecutive review of parenteral route errors of medications, reported to our center between January 2006 and June 2010. We collected demographic data and information on medications, route and time of administration, severity of symptoms/signs, treatment, and outcome.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seventy-eight cases (68 adults, 10 children) were available for analysis. The following wrong administration routes were recorded: paravenous (51%), intravenous (33%), subcutaneous (8%), and others (8%). Medications most frequently involved were iodinated x-ray contrast media (11%) and iron infusions (9%). Twenty-eight percent of the patients were asymptomatic and 54% showed mild symptoms; moderate and severe symptoms were observed in 9% and 7.7%, respectively, and were mostly due to intravenous administration errors. There was no fatal outcome. In most symptomatic cases local nonspecific treatment was performed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Enquiries concerning administration of medicines by an incorrect parenteral route were rare, and mainly involved iodinated x-ray contrast media and iron infusions. Most events occurred in adults and showed a benign clinical course. Although the majority of exposures concerned the paravenous route, the occasional severe cases were observed mainly after inadvertent intravenous administration.
authors: Associated Institute of the University of Zurich, Swiss Toxicological Information Centre, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors: Alexandra
authors: A
authors: Bloch-Teitelbaum
authors: Saskia
authors: S
authors: Lüde
authors: Christine
authors: C
authors: Rauber-Lüthy
authors: Hugo
authors: H
authors: Kupferschmidt
authors: Stefan
authors: S
authors: Russmann
authors: Gerd A
authors: GA
authors: Kullak-Ublick
authors: Alessandro
authors: A
authors: Ceschi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D003287:Contrast Media / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007262:Infusions, Intravenous; D007263:Infusions, Parenteral; D007275:Injections, Intravenous; D007279:Injections, Subcutaneous; D007501:Iron / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects; D008297:Male; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000639:trends; D008875:Middle Aged; D011039:Poison Control Centers / Q000639:trends; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013557:Switzerland / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media; D007501:Iron