ABSTRACT
Background: To study drug utilization of anticancer drugs in cancer outpatient department (OPD) of Government Medical College, Aurangabad. Methods: Five hundred and twelve prescription records were screened and analyzed as per the study parameters from cancer OPD of Government Medical College and Hospital, Aurangabad. Commonly used anticancer drugs were recorded; furthermore, different types of carcinomas were noted. Results: Age group of patients was in between 30 and 70, 267 were females and 245 were male patients. The most common type of carcinoma was carcinoma of the breast (17.9%). Carboplatin was the most commonly used anticancer drug (26.56%). The average number of anticancer drugs received per patient was three. Conclusion: WHO suggested drug utilization studies are needed in every health care setting. For a developing country like India, National Drug Policy and Drugs and Therapeutic Committee are a must.
ABSTRACT
Background: Injections are probably the most common of all medical procedures. The combination of injection overuse and unsafe practices creates a major route of transmission of blood borne pathogenic infections. Unnecessary use of injections can also lead to unnecessary burden on the institution in terms of efficiency, infrastructure, staff requirement and poor utilization of resources. Monitoring and analysis of prescribing practices can help to achieve rational use of injections. The present study was carried out to study the injection prescription patterns in outpatients of a rural tertiary care teaching hospital, Ambajogai, Maharashtra, India. Methods: A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted for duration of two months and 744 prescriptions were randomly collected and analyzed. Results: The total number of injections prescribed in 744 prescriptions was 205. Most (71.70%) of the patients receiving them were above 35 years of age. The most common complaint for which the injections were prescribed was musculoskeletal pain (45.36%) followed by fever. About 155 (75.60%) prescriptions contained injection diclofenac which was the most commonly used drug followed by injection paracetamol (11.21%). There was a high tendency of using brand names in prescriptions (89.30%). Conclusion: The study revealed high proportion of use of injectable drugs. There was overuse of analgesic injections like diclofenac, most of which were unnecessary and irrational. This leads to unnecessary burden on the institution in terms of efficiency, infrastructure, staff requirement and poor utilization of resources. There is a need to develop local guidelines for injection usage along with educational sessions for prescribing doctors.
ABSTRACT
Amoxicillin is a commonly used antimicrobial agent to combat various infections. Penicillin group of drugs are known to cause cutaneous drug eruptions especially in pediatric population. Most of the time, these eruptions are mild in nature, however, sometimes they represent the early manifestation of rare, severe drug-induced cutaneous reactions, such as Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN). Here, we report a case of maculopapular, erythematous rash induced by amoxicillin in an 18-year-old male patient. The case is being reported to emphasize the need for efficient pharmacovigilance in order to motivate adverse drug reaction reporting so as to gather more and more data regarding adverse drug reactions.