Adverse Drug Reactions in the Post Coronary Care Unit Inpatients of a Teaching Hospital

The monitoring and reporting of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in hospitals aims to identify and quantify the risks associated with the use of drugs. The present study was performed to characterize the rate and the pattern of ADRs, due to cardiovascular drugs and anticoagulants, in a tertiary care teaching hospital. For this purpose, all the patients treated with cardiovascular drugs and anticoagulants in the post coronary care unit (CCU) from September 2006 until January 2007 were actively monitored for ADRs. Data evalution was conducted for various parameters which included patient demographics, number of prescribed drugs, drug and reaction characteristics, and outcome of the reactions. Assessment was also done for causality, seriousness, and preventability. A total of 64 ADRs during the 4 months study period were evaluated. The overall rate of ADRs calculated from the patient population was 53%. No significant difference was seen in the overall rate of ADRs in males vs. females. The most commonly affected organ was gastro-intestinal system (14.06%). Nitroglycerin tablet (long-acting) and digoxin were the drugs most frequently reported (28.28%). In 20.31% of the reports, the patient had recovered from the reaction at the time of data collection. Upon causality assessment, the majority of the reports were rated as probable (64.06%). Serious and non-serious reactions accounted for 3.13% and 96.87% of the ADRs, respectively. In 9.37% of the reports, reaction was considered to be preventable. Our data revealed that ADRs in the post CCU occur rather frequently during hospitalization. Such studies enable us to obtain information on the rate and pattern of ADRs in the local population. These evaluations need to be followed by dissemination of the information to healthcare professionals to improve the quality of patient care and ensure safer use of drugs.