Drug use evaluation of cephalosporins in a tertiary care hospital

Background: Presently drug utilization studies (DUS) are in an evolving era. Current literature search has shown paucity of epidemiological studies in the field of paediatric pharmacology. Hence the present study was designed to assess the drug utilization pattern in neonatal intensive care unit to improvise the current prescription practices, if required and to determine areas in neonatal pharmacology in need of further research.Methods: A prospective, observational study spanned for a period of one year from January 2015 to December 2015 was conducted at the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), Government teaching tertiary care hospital, Maharashtra. Data of prescribed drugs was collected. WHO prescribing indicators were used for evaluating DUS. Assessment of exposure rates of different class of drugs in different gestational age groups was done. Data were analysed using descriptive studies.Results: Data of 205 neonates, showed male preponderance (53.17%) over female neonates (46.83%). With regard to the gestational age, 47.31% were term, 52.68% preterm. Average number of drugs per encounter was 6.69. 76.29% drugs were prescribed by generic name and 69.80 % drugs were from IAP list of essential medicines for children. Mean drug use was 6.23±3.34 per patient. Most common class of drug to which neonates were exposed was antibiotics (96.10%) and amikacin topped the list with exposure rate of 91.22%.Conclusions: The present study substantiates the need for implementation of institutional antibiotic policies, awareness regarding IAP list of essential drugs for children, prescription by generic name and rational drug use.

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Prescribing trends of ceftriaxone in private sector tertiary care hospital in Lahore

Research in Pharmacy and Health Sciences ◽

10.32463/rphs.2015.v01i01.05 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 23-26

Author(s):

Allah Bukhsh ◽

Maryam Manzoor ◽

Salma Shahzadi ◽

Shaheen Nadeem ◽

Shazia Jamshed

Keyword(s):

Drug Use ◽

Private Sector ◽

Tertiary Care Hospital ◽

Tertiary Care ◽

Poor Quality ◽

National Standard ◽

Care Hospital ◽

Prescribing Practices ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Prescribing Trends

Drug use evaluation is the method of performance improvement that focuses on evaluation and improvement of drug use processes to achieve optimal patient outcomes. Assessment of antimicrobials can be performed by evaluating their use. The quality of pharmaceuticals is a worldwide concern, poor quality and substandard medicines can cause harm in various ways. In developing countries including Pakistan there are the number of cases reported showing high incidence of empirical use of drugs. Empirical use of antibiotics leads to antimicrobial resistance, which forces the therapy to switch from 1st line drugs to 2nd line. Also increased use of antibiotics other than specified treatment results in increase patient stay at hospital and cost. The objective of this study was to evaluate the drug use practices of Ceftriaxone in private sector tertiary care hospital. In this concurrent cross-sectional study, medication orders of 50 patients who received Ceftriaxone were studied from August to October 2013. Data were collected randomly by using a structured format and evaluated against the standard criteria set from British National Formulary to evaluate drug use practices. It was observed that 42% of patients were prescribed with Ceftriaxone for UTI’s. Majority of the patients (54%) were of age ranging from 20-30 years and from male gender (90%). A dose of 2gm/day was prescribed in 52% of the patients. The dose and frequency that we observed were the same as that mentioned in standard (BNF). The prescribing practices were satisfactory according to our study but it can be enhanced further by adhering to national standard guidelines.

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