Introduction:
The expected therapeutic response may be affected by the presence
of drug interactions. With the high number of reports on new drug
interactions, it has been difficult for health professionals to
keep constantly updated. For this reason, computer systems have
helped identify such interactions.
Objectives: To verify the rate and profile of drug interactions
in medical prescriptions to hospitalized pediatric patients.
Methods: A descriptive study investigated prescriptions to hospitalized
pediatric patients. The study included patients between 0 and
12 years old, containing 4 or more drugs in their prescriptions.
The analysis of interaction and incompatibility possibilities
in prescribed drugs used Micromedex / Drug-Reax® program.
Results: From 2005 to 2006, 3,170 patients were investigated,
and 11,181 prescriptions were analyzed, a mean value of 3.5 prescriptions/patient.
In total, 6,857 drug interactions were found, which corresponds
to 1.9 interaction/prescription. Among them, relevance to ampicillin
and gentamicin, found in 220 (3.2%) prescriptions. In total, 2,411
drug incompatibilities in via y were found, a mean value of 0.5/prescription,
with emphasis on vancomycin and cefepime, found in 243 (10.0%)
prescriptions.
Conclusion: The presence of drug interactions is a permanent risk
in hospitals. This way, the utilization of computer programs,
pharmacotherapy monitoring of patients and the pharmacist presence
in the multidisciplinary team are some manners of contributing
to hospitalized patients’ treatment.
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