Evaluation Of Drug-Drug Interaction In General Intensive Care Unit

Siow, Yen Liau, and Noorizan Abd. Azid, and Yahaya Hassan, and Ahizah Hassan J., and Zubaidah Che Embee, and Normi Abdullah, (2005) Evaluation Of Drug-Drug Interaction In General Intensive Care Unit. Malaysian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 3 (2). pp. 61-61. ISSN 16575-7319

Abstract

The objective was to evaluate the drug-drug interaction (DDI) at General Intensive Care Unit (GICU), Hospital Pulau Pinang. A retrospective study and descriptive analysis of the medication charts from GICU were extracted from Pharmacy Department, Hospital Pulau Pinang. The drugs prescribed were assessed concurrently in accordance with the standard references for DDI. Outcome measures were the frequency and category of DDls and also the main classes of drugs involved. A total of 51 medication charts were analyzed. It was found the average number of drugs per GICU stay is 14.3 while the average number of drugs per day in GICU is 9.8. A total of 292 possible DDI were identified and only 7 medication charts without any possible DDI. It was found that the number of interactions increases as the number of drugs being prescribed increases. Twenty-seven percent of DDI was classified as clinically significant, 2% was classified as intermediate significant while 71% as not clinically significant. The two most common classes of drugs involved were the cardiovascular drugs and anti-infectives. These two classes of drugs contributed to 84% of clinically significant DDI. In conclusion, about one per three drugs prescribed for GICU were clinically significant DDI. Since critically ill patients are more sensitive to DDI effects, drug monitoring is recommended in order to achieve optimal therapy outcomes.

Evaluation Of Drug-Drug Interaction In General Intensive Care Unit

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Abstract