Occupational Exposure Reducing Remedies in Oncology Units

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of our study is reducing the healthcare workers' duration of exposure to the cytotoxic agents without increasing the unused dose wasting during preparation by making changes in vial sizes of cytotoxic drugs.

Methods: Wasted doses and preparation time (potential exposure time) of the selected antineoplastic drugs were measured for six months. The usage of small dose vials which causes prolongation in preparation time has been avoided and larger dosage forms were preferred in last trimester. Wasted drug dose amounts and preparation periods were recorded. Subsequently, the data compared between the trimesters.

Results: The total preparation period in the first trimester was 1407 minutes while it was 1058 minutes in the second trimester. There was no significant changes between the first and the last trimester of the study in terms of patients numbers that receiving chemotherapy and the rate of unused drug doses extermination (p>0.05). On the other hand, drug preparation time, in other words the health employee's exposure period to cytotoxic drugs was reduced 24.81%.

Conclusion: In the study, it has been shown that by making rational choices about drug usage can reduce the healthcare workers duration of exposure to the cytotoxic agents.