Prescription Pattern in A Medical Icu of A Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital of South India

Rajathilagam T¹, Malathy A. R², Seethalakshmi S¹ and Kothai G²

¹Department of Pharmacology, ESIC Medical College and PGIMSR, Chennai, Tamilnadu.

²Department of General Medicine, ESIC Medical College and PGIMSR, Chennai, Tamilnadu.

Corresponding Author E-mail: heartthrobe_kg@yahoo.co.in

Abstract: Patients who are admitted in ICU’s (Intensive Care Unit) are usually seriously ill, often suffer from multiple chronic illnesses and drug usage is also quite extensive. Due to resource restraints in providing quality healthcare in developing countries, drugs should be prescribed rationally in order to maximise benefit. Thus the ICU represents an important platform for conducting drug utilization studies. To evaluate the prescribing pattern in the medical I.C.U. of a tertiary care teaching hospital in Tamilnadu. A prospective cross sectional study was conducted among patients admitted to the medical ICU for a period of 6 months to establish the prescribing pattern. The collected data was analysed to estimate the WHO core drug prescribing indicators and patient indicators. The prescription data of 130 patients who met the study criteria was analysed. The mean age group of patients admitted was 54.95 ± 8.1 years and average duration of stay in the ICU was 5.5 ± 2.4 days. Cardiovascular (CVS) diseases was involved in the majority of the patients (41.5%, n = 54). Among parenteral drugs, 15 drugs (8 classes) acted on the CVS and 13 drugs (5 classes) were antibiotics while 25 drugs (7 classes) acted on the CVS and 11 drugs (6 classes) acted on the neurological system among oral drugs. Analysis of prescription records for drug utilization pattern in this study revealed that most of the drug classes were prescribed for appropriate indication & all drugs were prescribed as generics.

Keywords: Drug Utilisation; Medical ICU; Prescribing Pattern; Polypharmacy

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