medication prescribing pattern at a pediatric ward of an ethiopian hospital

introduction: drug use in pediatric patients is a unique dilemma in the management and monitoring of disease. this study aimed at assessing medication prescribing in a pediatric ward of an  ethiopian hospital. materials and methods: a retrospective cross-sectional study was done by reviewing the medical records of 249 patients among those admitted in the period between 11th of september 2007 and 10th of september 2008 to the pediatric ward of gondar university referral hospital, northwest ethiopia. data on characteristics like age, sex and weight; the diagnoses for which patients were admitted and medications prescribed to them during their stay in the ward was collected from the medical records of the patients. results: an average of 3 diagnoses per patient with the most frequently diagnosed being malnutrition (29.23%), severe community acquired pneumonia (12.96%) and underweight (8.86%) were reported. a mean of 4.5 medications per patient with the most commonly prescribed being antibacterials namely penicillins which constituted 25.42%, other antibacterials making up 19.61% and medications used for correcting water, electrolyte and acid-base disturbances accounting for 17.19% of the total number of medications prescribed in the ward. the most common individual medications prescribed to the patients included crystalline penicillin, gentamicin and maintenance fluid constituting 9.22, 7.52 and 6.45 percentages respectively most of them in solution forms which were administered dominantly intravenously. conclusion in this study the common prescription of antibacterials and those used for correcting water, electrolyte and acid-base disturbances was observed which went with the common diagnoses of malnutrition and pneumonia.