With the increasing demand for the preparation of sterile admixtures of anticancer drugs by pharmacists,it is importantthat their preparation can be done efficiently and safely,even by unskilled persons.In 2008,a drug transfer device whichaids the preparation of anticancer drugs (Chemo Mini-Spike?? ; CMS) was launched in Japan.Although this transfer device is said to be advantageous in that it makes drug preparation more rapid and reduces the riskof contamination and incidence of coring during preparation,there is no evidence to support this.Therefore,in this study,we compared CMS with a method using an 18 gauge injection needle (IN) regarding preparation time and incidence ofspillage and coring when used by 15 unskilled pharmacists.The total preparation time using CMS was significantly shorterthan that using IN (150.0±13.8 vs.175.3±23.7 s ; p<0.001).In particular,the time for aspiration of the solution from thevial was 2.5 times shorter for CMS (37.2±6.0 vs.90.5±15.7 s ; p<0.001).Though the incidence of spillage for CMS wasless than half of that for IN,this was not significant.There was only 1 case of coring among 45 preparations and this waswith the IN method.Our results suggest that CMS is a more efficient method for admixture preparation by unskilled pharmacists.
