What is included in the IV Compatibility section of drug monographs?

If a drug is available as a parenteral formulation and compatibility data with other drugs and/or solutions are available, then the monograph includes an IV Compatibility section. The intent of this section is to assist health care professionals, particularly pharmacists and nurses, in making decisions regarding the preparation and administration of parenteral products for patients. The IV Compatibility section includes content from Trissel’s™ 2 Clinical Pharmaceutics Database, data from published medical literature and product labels, and results from independent IV compatibility studies - only from Elsevier!

Compatibility results are provided when the drug-drug or drug-solution pair was studied in any of the following settings:

• Admixtures
• Mixed in the same syringe
• Y-site administration
• For dilution (solutions)

The 'IV Compatibility List' drop-down menu allows quick navigation to compatibility results between the monograph drug and another drug or solution within the table. High level results are displayed as icons within the table. Details of the results, including study conditions, can be reviewed by clicking on the icon. The icons are:

• Green circle with the letter C = Compatible
• Red stop sign with the letter I = Incompatible
• Yellow triangle with the letter U = Result uncertain, variable, or dependent on conditions
• If no results are available, the letters ND are displayed.

If more than one study is available for a drug pair, each study and its conditions (e.g., temperature of room/laboratory, study duration, drug manufacturers, drug concentrations, drug diluents) can be reviewed by clicking on the results icon.