Stability and sterility of single dose infusion vial of acetaminophen for multiple dosing

Single dose vials are considered to be used for single dose and single patient only. Many infection outbreaks reported previously by using single dose vials for multiple dosing were mainly due to improper handling by health care workers. However, under certain circumstances it is permissible to use single dose vial for multiple dosing. In present study, sterility and stability of 50 acetaminophen single dose vials were analyzed for 24 hours by withdrawing samples at different time intervals after the initial first spiking of vial by using basic aseptic techniques. The sterility was examined by inoculating samples on thioglycolate broth, nutrient agar and Sabouraud’s Dextrose agar but none of the samples found contaminated. The stability was evaluated by UV-visible spectrophotometric method. One way analysis (P-value=0.152) reject the null hypothesis and did not reveal any significant differences among samples at different time intervals. The study concludes the use of the SDV for multidosing provided the prevention of contamination in the system.