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Case Study for Polypharmacy

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Case Study
Ms. J. O. is an 82 year old female with a variety of comorbidities including Alzheimer’s type dementia. She is a resident of a dementia unit of a local assisted living facility. She was brought in to the hospital for a fall from which she stated she had hit her head but never lost consciousness. On arrival to hospital she was noticed to be very confused with complaint of back pain, chest pain but alert. After a short period of time her GCS abruptly dropped to 3 requiring intubation. CT scan of her head showed no bleeds, strokes or abnormality. All lab values were within normal limits and her blood pressure was mildly hypotensive 93/55.

Past medical history 1. Ms. J.O. has had numerous falls recently requiring multiple emergency room visits. Each visit also showed evaluation of altered mental status over her normal state of being. On one fall she suffered a pelvic fracture, sacral fracture and L2-3 fracture. Another fall she suffered a nasal bone fracture. She was treated for pain control for each visit and then returned to assisted living facility. Per family she has been at her facility for about a week before this fall. 2. 3. Type 2 diabetes 4. Ulcerative colitis 5. Anxiety/Depression 6. Hypothyroidism 7. Osteoarthritis 8. GERD 9. Alzheimer’s type dementia 10. Stroke 11. Peripheral neuropathy 12. Chronic back pain from falls 13. Hypertension 14. Knee surgery 15. Cataract surgery 16. Carpal tunnel release 17. Appendectomy

Medication List 1. 2. Neurontin 200 mg BID (9a & 9p) 3. Neurontin 100 mg once daily at noon 4. 5% Lidocaine patch applied to L2-3 area for 12 hours on, 12 hours off 5. Namenda 10 mg BID 6. Toprol-XL 25 mg daily 7. Actos 30 mg daily 8. Glucosamine chondroitin tablet once every other day 9. Multivitamin tablet

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