Survey of drug interactions in the precautions of outcome patients at Nguyen Dinh Chieu Hospital Ben Tre in 2019

Abstract

Drug interactions are a common problem in clinical practice. Drug interactions can reduce the effectiveness of treatment and are also one of the causes of adverse drug events, including toxicity and adverse reactions. Adverse reactions during treatment could even result in death for the patient. Nguyen Dinh Chieu Hospital receives about 1.100 outpatients every day. This study aims to understand the rate of drug interactions and factors influencing the interactions. Cross-sectional and retrospective descriptive studies were conducted on 271.104 prescriptions of 53.858 outpatients in 2019 at Nguyen Dinh Chieu Hospital. Research results showed that there were 2.336 pairs of interactions recorded, of which 438 pairs of clinically significant interactions accounted for 18,75% and 1.898 pairs of clinically insignificant interactions accounted for 81,25%. The percentage of prescriptions that had clinically insignificant interactions was 29.355 out of 271.104 prescriptions accounted for 10,83%. As age and the number of drugs prescribed increase, the likelihood of drug interactions increases. The most serious interactions are between Clarithromycin and Simvastatin; Itraconazole and Simvastatin; Alfuzosin and Itraconazole; Felodipine and Itraconazole.