More on burns after photodynamic therapy

doi:10.1136/bmj.322.7279.171/a

BMJ 2001;322:171 ( 20 January )

Letters

More on burns after photodynamic therapy

Might doctors performing the study have been given the wrong injection instructions?

Manufacturer's reply

Might doctors performing the study have been given the wrong injection instructions?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ I was surprised to read the letter from Robert Dow, chief executive of Scotia, stating that Foscan (temoporfin), alight activated anticancer drug, was originally reconstitutedin water and is therefore water soluble.¹

Foscan is highly insoluble in water and was never reconstituted in water but in a solution of ethanol, polyethylene glycol,and water. If any formulation of Foscan is injected into a salinefilled needle it will precipitate. If an intravenous injectionport has been flushed with saline before Foscan injection thevein is also likely to contain some saline and, on being injected,Foscan will precipitate along the vein walls, giving an excessivelyhigh concentration of drug along that vein. The photodynamic injuriesreported after Foscan injection do not have a distribution whichlooks attributable to local extravasation of the drug.² Theyseem to follow the line of the vein and are therefore much more. . . [Full text of this article]

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