Prescribing albumin in a central hospital – new standards versus old habits
Keywords:
human albuminAbstract
The current study aims to evaluate the adequacy of albumin prescription in a central hospital within the available scientific evidence.
This was a retrospective study from September 2007 to August 2008. 761 demands from 619 patients on human albumin
were analyzed. Patients were in average aged 58.1 +/-14.7
years, where 510 were male (77%). Other parameters were also
assessed: total proteins, serum albumin, serum creatinine, INR,
obtained at the date of request. From a total of 556.831 bottles of
albumin requested, only 5033 (0.9%) were actually administered.
Patients with liver diseases were the majority (60%), and 36%
of the requests were in accordance with the scientific evidence.
The main cause for albumin prescription was hypoalbuminaemia
(53%). We conclude that grounds for prescribing albumin should
be better thought through, and a more restrictive policy for albumin
supply from the pharmaceutical department is entirely justified.
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