The hazards of look-alike packaging in anaesthesia practice

This article discusses the problem of similar packaging of intravenous drugs. The problem is compounded in anaesthesia as the drugs being mostly intravenous. Look-alike ampoules and vials are a reality; simply because there are so few designs and colours to choose from and so many injectable drugs to dispense.
About 1/3 of all cases of confusing medication correlates with similar packaging and labelling of drugs, at the same time 50% of all cases of confusing medication is due to poor performance of qualified staff. Many articles are available documenting the hazards of look-alike drug labels. An article about this problem was published in the Asian Journal of Anesthesiology.
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