Abstract
We prepared a chemotherapy information leaflet that helped to enhance patients' understanding of chemotherapy and to reduce their anxiety about its adverse reactions. The aim of the present study was to evaluate pharmaceutical services with regard to the management of adverse reactions, length of hospital stay and the medical costs for women with gynecologic cancer who received chemotherapy. We carried out a retrospective chart survey of 28 ovarian cancer patients to clarify the effects of pharmaceutical care on their chemotherapy. Half of the patients were given chemotherapy information verbally and were assigned to Group A, and the other half were supplied with an information leaflet and a self-check list for adverse reactions and assigned to Group B. There were no significant differences between the two groups regarding the occurrence of adverse events, except for fatigue and insomnia. However, 50% (7/14) of the patients in Group A stayed longer in hospital to be free from adverse reactions, especially myelosuppression. The mean hospital days per cycle of chemotherapy in Group B (2.76±0.80 days) was significantly shorter than that in Group A (7.28±3.97 days, p<0.001). Thus, our pharmaceutical care using chemotherapy information leaflets had a favorable effect in terms of shortening the length of hospital stay.
