Journal of Pharmacovigilance

Pattern of potential drug-drug interactions in a tertiary care teaching hospital

3^rd International Conference and Exhibition on Pharmacovigilance & Clinical Trials

October 27-29, 2014 Hyderabad International Convention Centre, India

C Vani and D Giri Raja Sekhar

Accepted Abstracts: J Pharmacovigilance

Abstract:

Objectives: The main objective of the study is to identify the pattern of potential drug interactions in intensive care unit in a tertiary care teaching hospital. Methods: All patients admitted in the intensive care unit were included in a cross-sectional study, over a period of three months. Patients with less than a 2 days length of stay were excluded. Data were collected from twenty-four hour prescriptions and all possible paired combinations of drug were recorded. Results: One hundred and thirty four patients were analyzed of the 288 prescriptions, 7. 29% presented with major drug interactions and 78. 4% of them were moderate and 14. 23 were found to be minor interactions. On an average 6 drugs/day were prescribed to a patient. Conclusions: Critically ill patients are subjected to high risk of potential drug interactions and the number of drugs/day has a high positive predictive value for these interactions. Therefore, it is imperative that critical care physicians be constantly alert to recognize this problem and provide appropriate mechanisms for management, thereby reducing adverse outcomes.