Prevalence of Potential Drug-Drug Interactions in Hospitalized Surgical Patients

The objective of this study is to estimate the prevalence and describe the characteristics of pDDIs (potential drug-drug interactions) in medical prescriptions of hospitalized surgical patients. In this cross-sectional study, we analyzed 370 medical prescriptions from the surgery unit of a Mexican public teaching hospital. The identification and classification of potential drug-drug interactions were performed with the Micromedex 2.0 electronic drug information database. Results were analyzed with descriptive statistics and we estimated OR (odds ratio) to determine associated risk factors. From the study, it was found that the prevalence of potential drug-drug interactions was 45.9%. A total of 385 interactions were identified. Of these, 54.3% were classified as major and 60.5% as pharmacodynamic. Prescriptions for more than seven drugs (OR =7.33, CI (confidence interval) = 4.59~11.71) and advanced age > 60 years, (OR = 1.79, CI = 1.06~2.74) were positively associated with the presence of potential drug-drug interactions. We found a high prevalence of clinically relevant pDDIs in the surgery unit. In view of this outcome, the safety of drug combinations in hospitalized surgical patients should be evaluated during the prescription process in order to prevent adverse events.