Biochemical test as an efficient system to improve safety in parenteral nutrition for premature infants

The biochemical test validation process of parenteral nutrition bags  is described to verify the correct composition of critical compounds before its  administration, as well as its impact on safety after two years since its  implantation in a population of premature infants.

For the validation of the technique, 35 samples of parenteral nutrition  without lipids were processed by the emergency laboratory, following the routine procedures used to measure the concentrations of glucose and electrolytes in  plasma and urine. To analyze its impact on safety, pre-implantation and post- implantation risk analysis was carried out using failure mode, effects and  criticality analysis (FMECA). Likewise, all out-of-range results and their potential  repercussions on patient safety were evaluated.

Regression analysis showed no systematic measurement error for  glucose, calcium and potassium; however, there is a constant systematic error  for sodium and magnesium, thus both were discarded for routine analysis.  Failure mode, effects and criticality analysis results showed a decrease in the  risk of the process of 11% for the biochemical test. We tested 1,734 parenteral  nutritions from 218 premature neonates; 58 (3.3%) results were out of the  acceptance range, and 7 were considered to be potentially dangerous  compounding errors.

The biochemical test of glucose and electrolytes is an efficient and reproducible method that prevents possible compounding errors from reaching  the patient.