DRUG UTILIZATION OF ANALGESICS IN POST-OPERATIVE ORTHOPAEDIC INPATIENTS IN TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL, BELAGAVI: A PROSPECTIVE OBSERVATIONAL STUDY

Dr. Srinivasa B. and *Dr. Aruna Bhushan

ABSTRACT

Objectives: To evaluate the prescribing pattern of analgesics and to analyze the rational use of analgesics in orthopaedic post operative in-patient. Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted from April to June 2019 in orthopaedic post operative in-patient department of tertiary care teaching hospital, BIMS, Belagavi. Prior permission from institutional ethical committee was taken. Detailed data of the inpatients including demographic, diagnosis, treatment and drug details was collected and entered in a proforma and expressed statistically. The prescribed drugs was assessed using National Model List of Essential Medicines(NLEM) 2015. The rationality of prescriptions was determined using the WHO indicators of drug utilization. Results: Out of 300 orthopaedic post operative in-patients, 192(64%) were males and 108(36%) were females. Patients of age group ≥51years were more prone for fractures. The common indication for operative procedures was road traffic accidents inflicted fractures. The average number of drugs per prescription was 6.28. The average no of analgesics per prescription was 1.13. In this study, 87.3% of patients had received single analgesic and tramadol (58.3%) was commonly prescribed drug. Majority of patients received parenteral preparation (86.6%). Antibiotics (32.7%) were most frequently prescribed concomitant drugs. All 338 analgesics used were from NLEM and 245(72.5%) analgesics were prescribed by generic name. Conclusions: Tramadol was the commonly prescribed analgesic. Most of the analgesics prescribed were rationally from NLEM and by generic name.

Keywords: Drug utilization, analgesics, orthopaedics, postoperative inpatients.