Drug Therapeutic Failures as a Cause of Admission to an Intensive Care Unit at a University Hospital.

Objective: Drug therapeutic failures (TFs) are included in pharmacovigilance reporting, as some authors consider them a type of adverse drug reaction. Given their high frequency in Colombia, we studied their importance as a cause of admission to an intensive care unit (ICU). Methods: This was a cross-sectional observational study. Clinical records of patients who arrived at the emergency service of a third-care level university hospital were reviewed. Information was collected by a resident in clinical toxicology, and each case was validated and analyzed by a research team using the algorithm proposed by Vaca Gonzalez and Schumock and Thornton criteria for preventability to evaluate the existence of possible medication errors. Findings: In total, 697 clinical records were evaluated and 18 patients presented TFs (2.6%, 95% confidence interval 1.5%-4.1%) as the cause of admission to the ICU. The most frequent TFs were seizures (56%) and hypertension (28%). The most commonly associated medications were valproic acid (28%) and losartan (28%). Ten cases (56%) were associated with drug misuse and the same number of cases was preventable, according to Schumock and Thornton criteria. Conclusion: This is the first study assessing TFs as a cause of admission to the ICU in the Colombian population. The frequency of TFs in our study was similar to that described in the literature; being the most common cause the inappropriate drug use, particularly for drugs with complex kinetics, such as antiepileptic drugs.

• Fecha de publicación: 2019
• Institución: Universidad del Rosario
• Repositorio: Repositorio EdocUR - U. Rosario
• Idioma: eng
• OAI Identifier: oai:repository.urosario.edu.co:10336/24647
• Acceso en línea: https://doi.org/10.4103/jrpp.jrpp_18_69; https://repository.urosario.edu.co/handle/10336/24647
• Palabra clave: Drug-related side effects and adverse reactions; intensive care units; patient admissions; pharmacovigilance; postmarketing; product surveillance
• License: Abierto (Texto Completo)