Background
Dabigatran is indicated for primary prevention of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in adult patients undergoing surgery for total hip or knee replacement.
Purpose
To analyse the prescription and adaptation to the approved indications for dabigatran in a tertiary hospital.
Materials and methods
Retrospective observational study lasting 12 months (January 2010-December 2010) which included patients treated with dabigatran.
Results
During the study period, 236 interventions were made for which dabigatran treatment was suitable (94 hip and 142 knee replacements). Dabigatran was prescribed in 11 patients (9 women and 2 men), mean age 61 years (36-77): 5 for hip replacement, 2 for knee replacement, 1 for partial femoral neck fracture and 3 patients had not undergone prosthetic intervention. Dose adjustment was necessary only in two patients aged over 75 years: a 77-year-old woman treated with 110 mg/day and a 76-year-old man with 150 mg/day. Only in 63.63% of cases (n=7) did the prescription conform to the approved indications.
Conclusions
Despite being newly introduced to the hospital's formulary, it is necessary to remark that one third of the prescriptions did not conform to the approved indications for use in the hospital. Therefore, it is necessary to create and disseminate standard rules for use in the medical wards. This will increase adherence to the recommendations of use, reduce prescribing errors and establish corrective actions for them.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.