Medications, and their expiration dates. DOD pegs it at 15 years past expiration.

Pacific Northwest yetti

Expedition Medic
the most recent DOD study pegs it at 15 years......that being said the efficacy does/ can go down. Depending on storage conditions, and if the seal was broken or not.

once something has hit its expiration date using it is against the MFGR recommendations.

Just sharing some info, for those inquiring minds like mine.

I am not advising you to use expired meds.



 
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Lucky j

Explorer
Well, I am paramedic, and also a member of a ski patrol. So as a paramedic, we have to be serious about expiration date.

But a few years back at the ski patrol, during a yearly refresher, two of our memeber, a phamacist and a bio-chimist engineer that work for a big pharmaco company, got into a discussion about expiration date and if a expired med like epinephrine should be used. Well, we had to stop them, cause it was time to switch to the next rotation.

We never got the final answer. Lol
 

Pacific Northwest yetti

Expedition Medic
Ill try to find an upload the picture, I found some penicillin from 1967 in a drawer at my infirmary in Egegik Ak.

The articles go into the injectables- if its cloudy, no bueno.


I would not use expired Epi,


I agree, especially as licensed in a front country setting, abide the expiration date. 100% As a best and risk management perspective.

Interesting, and life on the remote side things change. Ill still rarely use something expired even out here, and when i do usually get a Doc;s Signature on it,
 
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1leglance

2007 Expedition Trophy Champion, Overland Certifie
So there is what I tell you and what I would do myself to my loved one that I hope would not sue me....

I tell you to toss everything before it expires, especially in a brutally hot place like Phx or a super humid place.
However if all I had for myself or a loved one who I knew would not sue was something expired, yeah I would use it.
 

jgaz

Adventurer
I tell you to toss everything before it expires, especially in a brutally hot place like Phx or a super humid place.

^This^.
I live in Phoenix. All the meds in both vehicle kits and both hiking kits get replaced in November every year. With our heat my meds never have a chance to get close to their expiration date.
I also replace the batteries in anything that rides full time in the vehicles.
 

Laps

Active member
Most meds are fine when kept in a cool dark place, so I have most essential, but rarely used meds in the fridge. However, antibiotics do tend to expire according to the stated expiration date, so I would not rely on them even if kept stored properly.
 

Pacific Northwest yetti

Expedition Medic
The articles above included the majority of antibiotics in that 15yr window. Expired antibiotics are used daily in the military and combat zones.

Sent from somewhere remote on my BlackBerry
 

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