Comparison of Accuracy and Precision of Volumes in Drugs Prepared by the Chemotherapy Compounding Robot and the Pharmacists at Udonthani Cancer Hospital

Abstract

Objective: To compare the accuracy and precision of the volume of drugs prepared by the chemotherapy compounding robot or AYA and manual preparation by pharmacists at Udonthani Cancer Hospital. Method: This prospective experimental study collected data from having the AYA chemotherapy compounding robot and 4 pharmacists draw various volumes of distilled water with 5 sizes of syringes for 5 times in each volume. The study determined the difference in weight of syringes before and after drawing distilled water, and calculated the volume of water prepared. The study analyzed the accuracy from the standard deviation. Results: AYA robot is the first injectable chemotherapy mixing robot produced in Thailand. The robot drew distilled water with an accuracy of more than 90% (in the range of 95.56-99.32%) in all sizes of syringes used and in all measuring volumes. The pharmacists drew the volume of water with the accuracy more than 90% (in the range of 93.50-99.71%) in every size of syringe used and in every volume measured, except for measuring 1 mL of water with 5 and 10 mL syringes with accurate at only 79.30 and 80.80%, respectively. The measurement of 1 ml of water with 5 and 10 ml syringes by the robot obtained the volume with 20.02 and 14.76% more accurate than that measured by the pharmacist, respectively (P<0.001). The robot also drew water with a volume that was 3.15-4.96% more accurate than that measured by the pharmacist when using 5 ml syringes (to draw 2.5 and 5 ml of water) and 50 ml syringes (to draw 10 and 50 ml of water). In other cases, the difference in volumes of water drew by the robot and the pharmacists were not more than 2%. Conclusion: The chemotherapy mixing robot can draw drugs with more accurate and precise volumes than the pharmacist in some cases.