Christel Johanson

The Ottawa Hospital · Department of Pharmacy

Objectives: The 2013 clinical practice guidelines for the management of pain, agitation, and delirium in adult patients in the ICU suggest that pain be routinely assessed using a validated pain assessment tool. Currently available tools have only been evaluated in nondelirious critically ill patients, yet delirium can affect as many as 80% of ICU...

Background: Critically ill patients often receive multiple medications via continuous intravenous infusion. Coadministration of multiple medications through the same port of a venous access device often is necessary but requires an assessment of compatibility. Objective: To describe the frequency of inappropriate coadministration of continuously...

Purpose: To determine the proportion of critically ill adults developing impaired gastrointestinal transit (IGT) using a clinically pragmatic definition, its associated morbidity and risk factors. Materials and methods: Critically ill adult patients receiving enteral nutrition for ≥ 72 hours and mechanically ventilated for ≥ 48 hours were prospe...

Background: Methanol or ethylene glycol ingestion may result in significant morbidity or death without prompt treatment. Despite traditional and widespread use of intravenous ethanol as an antidote, its safety is not well described. An evaluation of the safety and ease of titrating ethanol infusions is necessary given the availability of an altern...

Venlafaxine is a novel antidepressant that works by inhibiting the reuptake of serotonin and norepinephrine. The objectives of this study were to reformulate a venlafaxine extended-release suspension into an immediate-release preparation and then determine the physical and chemical stability of the new venlafaxine formulation. Suspensions of venlaf...

To quantify the physical and chemical stability data published for commonly used continuously infused medications in the intensive care unit and to evaluate the quality of the studies providing these data. We conducted a systematic electronic literature search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, and International Pharmaceutical Abstracts as well as the references...

The present study, using an in vitro model, assessed telithromycin pharmacodynamic activity at simulated clinically achievable free-drug concentrations in serum (S) and epithelial lining fluid (ELF) against efflux (mefE)-producing macrolide-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae. Two macrolide-susceptible (PCR negative for both mefE and ermB) and 11 ef...

The carbapenems are beta-lactam-type antibiotics with an exceptionally broad spectrum of activity. Ertapenem is a new carbapenem developed to address the pharmacokinetic shortcomings (short half-life) of imipenem and meropenem. Ertapenem shares similar structural features with meropenem, including its stability to dehydropeptidase-1, allowing it to...

The association between macrolide resistance mechanisms and ketolide bacteriological eradication of Streptococcus pneumoniae remains poorly studied. The present study, using an in vitro model, assessed telithromycin pharmacodynamic activity against macrolide-susceptible and macrolide-resistant S. pneumoniae simulating clinically achievable free ser...