Tetracaine (injection) storage - fridge and why?

[confettiflyer]

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This was bugging me last week...where/how do you guys store your tetracaine for injection?

One box says "keep refrigerated" but for some reason the spinal trays in the med room (which have tetracaine) are kept at RT. Only thing I could find from the mfr was that refrigeration keeps the thing from precipitating, so we just told our OR docs to make sure the spinal kit tetracaine was clear before using.

We figured maybe the kits have a different expiry date or are from a different mfr w/ excipients, but neither really made sense... we haven't had any problems w/ precip & the kits cycle through pretty quickly. We were just curious why one mfr would be adamant about refrigeration & another not so much.

Total bottom of the totem pole question so I thought I'd throw it to you all.

 

[ForcedEntry]

It sounds like a "warning: coffee is hot" situation

 

[RxWildcat]

This was bugging me last week...where/how do you guys store your tetracaine for injection?

One box says "keep refrigerated" but for some reason the spinal trays in the med room (which have tetracaine) are kept at RT. Only thing I could find from the mfr was that refrigeration keeps the thing from precipitating, so we just told our OR docs to make sure the spinal kit tetracaine was clear before using.

We figured maybe the kits have a different expiry date or are from a different mfr w/ excipients, but neither really made sense... we haven't had any problems w/ precip & the kits cycle through pretty quickly. We were just curious why one mfr would be adamant about refrigeration & another not so much.

Total bottom of the totem pole question so I thought I'd throw it to you all.

You worry about things like this at 3:27am? 👎

 

[confettiflyer]

You worry about things like this at 3:27am? 👎

I'm on west coast time...haha, and it was on my to do list (go on SDN and ask about tetracaine).

This was an actual question posed to us by one of the surgeons--he saw us loading the vials into the fridge and wondered why since his spinal kit had it sitting at RT.

No issues reported so far, but we'd rather know before rather than after the fact, if you catch my drift.

 

[Ackj]

Wouldn't it have something to do with shelf life? Degradation is slower in cold, so the vial's expiration date assumes refrigeration, and will expire at a sooner date if at RT.

t90=t90intial/[(Q^(ΔT-10)]

This was something we learned in pharmaceutics, doesn't seem to be a clinically significant equation really. But who knows? That's my guess.

 

[confettiflyer]

Wouldn't it have something to do with shelf life? Degradation is slower in cold, so the vial's expiration date assumes refrigeration, and will expire at a sooner date if at RT.

t90=t90intial/[(Q^(ΔT-10)]

This was something we learned in pharmaceutics, doesn't seem to be a clinically significant equation really. But who knows? That's my guess.

The issue was specifically precipitation, I mean you're injecting this into the CSF, it could be an issue. It boils down to one manufacturer insisting that it be stored in the fridge and (presumably) another company sticking it into a RT kit without any storage requirements listed. Who's right?

 

[Farmercyst]

Found this on google scholar.
It seems you are correct. Precipitation and a new patent for a more stable solution.

http://www.google.com/patents?hl=en...stract#v=onepage&q=tetracaine storage&f=false

 

[confettiflyer]

Found this on google scholar.
It seems you are correct. Precipitation and a new patent for a more stable solution.

http://www.google.com/patents?hl=en...stract#v=onepage&q=tetracaine storage&f=false

oh beautiful, i don't know how i missed that one, thanks!

interesting because the tetracaine vials (not in the kit) we have can be autoclaved...this is the same tetracaine that says "keep refrigerated" on it. I'm now about 99% sure both preps are stable @ RT but "keep refrigerated" is on the box as an anachronism.

I'll double check next time I come in this week.