As ambiguous package descriptions occasionally cause medication errors,measures against this should be taken to help ensure that medicines are used properly.An example is Speel plaster® M,a salicylic acid adhesive plaster,which is used for the treatment of dermal diseases with keratosis.It is supposed to be attached to the diseased skin in a size the same as that of the affected area or smaller than it,in order to prevent the normal skin surrounding the affected area from being irritated and/or being detached.However,we found that some patients covered an area larger than the affected area with the plaster.This may be due to misunderstanding of a Japanese expression in the package description.The expression is “Kanbu-dai”which means the same size as the affected area but some patients take“dai”to mean large making them think that the size should be larger.
In a questionnaire given to 180 pharmacy school students,65.6% answered that the proper use of the plaster was to apply it in a size larger than the affected area,since they had misunderstood the meaning of the expression“Kanbu-dai”.This misunderstanding seemed to be connected with the fact that they had not used the plaster before.We therefore devised a user-friendly package with an explanation to patients using illustrations to help ensure that the plaster is used properly.
