Prevalence of potential drug-drug interactions in the intensive care unit of a Brazilian teaching hospital

Abstract

Patients in intensive care unit are prescribed large numbers of drugs, highlighting the need to study potential Drug-Drug Interactions in this environment. The aim of this study was to delineate the prevalence and risk of potential drug-drug interactions between medications administered to patients in an ICU. This cross-sectional observational study was conducted during 12 months, in an adult ICU of a teaching hospital. Inclusion criteria were: prescriptions with 2 or more drugs of patients admitted to the ICU for > 24 hours and age of ≥18 years. Potential Drug-Drug Interactions were quantified and classified through Micromedex TM database. The 369 prescriptions included in this study had 205 different drugs, with an average of 13.04 ± 4.26 (mean ± standard deviation) drugs per prescription. Potential Drug-Drug Interactions were identified in 89% of these, with an average of 5.00 ± 5.06 interactions per prescription. Of the 405 different pairs of potentially interacting drugs identified, moderate and major interactions were present in 74% and 67% of prescriptions, respectively. The most prevalent interaction was between dipyrone and enoxaparin (35.8%), though its clinical occurrence was not observed in this study. The number of potential Drug-Drug Interactions showed significant positive correlations with the length of stay in the intensive care unit, and with the number of prescribed drugs. Acknowledging the high potential for Drug-Drug Interactions in the ICU represents an important step toward improving patient safety and best therapy results.Uniterms: Potential drug-drug interactions. Intensive care unit. Patient safety. University hospitals.

Assessing Drug-Drug Interaction Potential among Patients Admitted to Surgery Departments in Three Palestinian Hospitals

“…Other studies in surgical departments are few. A Brazilian study of drug interactions in the ICU reported a higher prevalence of pDDIs which was 89% [ 19 ].…”

“…Thus, pDDIs among patients in surgery departments may have unique interactions compared to patients hospitalized in other hospital departments. Little is known about pDDIs in surgery departments [ 18 , 19 ]. In addition, data regarding drug interaction potential in Palestine hospitals is scarce [ 11 ].…”

Intravenous drug incompatibilities in the intensive care unit of a tertiary care hospital in India: Are they preventable?

“…They identified the interaction between dipyrone, and enoxaparin (35.8%) was the most prevalent. [ 26 ] In our study, we noticed, 76.9% major and 16.9% moderate DDIs. Most of the significant drug interactions occurred with ondansetron comprising 38%.…”

Effect of amodiaquine on the pharmacokinetics of gliclazide in diabetic subjects

“…More than 16 million people were estimated to have diabetes in the AFRO Region and the figure is expected to increase to 41 million to by the year 2045 (IDF, 2016). Polypharmacy is common in clinical practice (Greenblatt et al, 2017;Rodrigues et al, 2017). The chronic treatment with one drug may be supplemented by a further short-term treatment with a second drug, or several drugs may be co-administered on a long-term basis (Greenblatt et al, 2017;Rodrigues et al, 2017).…”

“…Polypharmacy is common in clinical practice (Greenblatt et al, 2017;Rodrigues et al, 2017). The chronic treatment with one drug may be supplemented by a further short-term treatment with a second drug, or several drugs may be co-administered on a long-term basis (Greenblatt et al, 2017;Rodrigues et al, 2017). In malarial endemic areas, the need for polypharmacy for diabetic patients becomes obvious in majority of patients (Greenblatt et al, 2017).…”