Practice-changing updates in the March 2021 release

Practice-changing updates in the March 2021 release

As well as including a comprehensive update to the Developmental Disability and Psychotropic guidelines, the March 2021 release of eTG complete also includes the following practice-changing updates to other guidelines. With each release, we are also continuing to implement drug name changes in line with the Therapeutic Goods Administration. 

Antibiotic guidelines  

  • In patients undergoing surgical abortion, age is one of several criteria for assessing the risk of concurrent sexually transmitted infection. Criteria have been amended in the topic ‘Surgical antibiotic prophylaxis for specific procedures’ to clarify that individuals aged 20 years or younger are at higher risk than those older than 20 years. 

Gastrointestinal guidelines  

  • Patients taking an SGLT2 inhibitor are at increased risk of euglycaemic diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) when undergoing a procedure, and this risk is increased if the patient has been fasting, has very restricted dietary intake or has undergone bowel preparation. The topic ‘Preparation for gastrointestinal procedures’ has been updated to highlight this risk; it now includes links to the Diabetes guidelines for more detail on management, and links to alerts issued by the Australian Diabetes Society and Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration. 

Respiratory guidelines  

  • Beclometasone+formoterol has now been approved by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) for use in adults with asthma who require Step 3 maintenance and reliever therapy, or Step 3 or Step 4 maintenance therapy. Drug recommendations for beclometasone+formoterol have been added.  
  • A link has been added to the recently published Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand position statement on diagnosis and management of connective tissue disease–associated interstitial lung disease.

Sexual and Reproductive Health guidelines  

  • Serum human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) measurement helps guide the timing of an ultrasound scan to confirm intrauterine pregnancy before medical abortion. Detail has been added to clarify how to use hCG measurements to guide timing of ultrasound for very early gestations (less than 5 to 6 weeks).