Medical Abbreviations 'pose risk' 

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Doctors are being warned that using abbreviations in medical notes is putting patients' lives at risk.

The UK's Medical Defence Union said difficulties often arose because abbreviations can have more than one meaning or might be misread.

Some patients have had the wrong limb removed or operated on and others have been given deadly drug doses, it said.

A recent US study of 30,000 medication errors, some fatal, showed 5% were linked to abbreviations in notes.

Abbreviations can cause confusion and risk patient safety

Dr Sally Old, MDU medico-legal adviser

Common errors included abbreviating drug names and dosages, the Joint Commission found.

An example inv

olved a 62-year-old patient on haemodialysis who was treated for a viral infection with the drug acyclovir.

The order for acyclovir was written as "acyclovir (unknown dose) with HD", meaning haemodialysis. Acyclovir should be adjusted for renal impairment and given only once daily

However, the order was misread as TID (three times daily) and the patient died as a result.

Read more about the risks of medical abbreviations here.