A drug utilization study in post-operative patients of obstetrics and gynecology of a tertiary care teaching hospital

ABSTRACT

Background: After any kind of surgery, many drugs are prescribed for prevention of infection, analgesic purpose, nausea, vomiting, gastritis and to maintain the hemodynamic status. Drug utilization studies are conducted for a variety of reasons, including consumption, off-label use, medication errors, misuse, and treatment dynamics. It is done to identify the problems associated and help the prescribers to optimize resource allocation and utilization. Aim and Objectives: This study was conducted with the objective to reconnoiter the utilization pattern of various medications in obstetrics and gynecological post-operative cases for assessment of various medications prescribed, their route of administration, their duration of use, and the World Health Organization (WHO) core drug indicators. Materials and Methods: This was a Prospective Observational study conducted after obtaining approval from the Institutional Ethics Committee. Data were collected from patients case sheets during the period of April 2019 to June 2019, in the post-operative wards of obstetrics and gynecology department using a structured pro forma. Results: A total of 100 patients were prescribed with different medications such as antimicrobials, analgesics antacids, with an average of 7.48 drugs per encounter. Injectable drug encounters was up to 92 %. Antimicrobials were prescribed upto 88 %) and the most common being metronidazole which was prescribed to 80% of patients. The most common analgesic prescribed was diclofenac for 73% of patients. Out of 41 different types of drugs prescribed, 45 (45%) were prescribed by their generic name and 91 (91%) were from the Essential Medicines WHO Model List (2021). Conclusions: The present study provides a valuable insight about the overall pattern of drugs prescribed in postoperative patients in the obstetrics and gynecology unit of a tertiary care hospital. Though only one half of the medications prescribed were by the generic name, a very good proportion of medications were prescribed from the Essential Medicine List. This report is mainly intended to be a step in the wider assessment of safety and efficacy of drugs prescribed in post-operative wards.