(B-072) Prescribing pattern of medicines at orthopedics outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital

Background: The rational use of medicines, in accordance with the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, is crucial for optimizing healthcare outcomes. Analgesics including non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are one of the commonly prescribed group of drugs for the management of pain and inflammation and are also the most widely prescribed class of medications worldwide. Analgesics are the most common class of drugs prescribed for various conditions in the orthopaedics department. The periodic evaluation of drug utilization research needs to be done to enable medical practitioners to make medical care rational.

Objectives: To analyze the prescribing pattern of medicines at the orthopaedics OPD of a tertiary care teaching hospital.

Methods: A one year prospective cross-sectional study was carried out in the orthopaedics OPD . Collected data included age, sex, diagnosis and line of management during the study. The prescribed drugs were assessed with respective National Model List of Essential Medicines (NLEM), 2011 and the rationality of prescriptions was determined using the World Health Organization indicators of drug utilization. The patients' details were recorded in a data collection form and results were analyzed by descriptive statistics.

Results: A total of 238 prescriptions were analyzed. 54.6 % were male and 45.4 % were female. Of the 238 prescriptions there were total 798 drugs prescribed, with an average of 3.3 drugs per prescription. Average number of FDC per prescription accounts for 1.82 (n=446). Out of the total number of drugs, 375 (46.99%) drugs were analgesics; out of which 332 (89.3%) were NSAIDs and 44 (11.7%) were opioid analgesics. The most common analgesic was aceclofenac (37%) followed by paracetamol and the least prescribed were etodolac and metaxalone. The non analgesics like gabapentin, pregabalin and nortriptyline were also observed to be prescribed commonly. Supportive drugs prescribed were mostly gastroprotective (commonly proton pump inhibitors) and nutritional supplements.

Conclusions:

Conclusions: Our study revealed that the most commonly prescribed NSAIDs was aceclofenac either alone or in combination, whereas the most commonly prescribed opioid analgesic was tramadol. Our study is in accordance with the other study validate aceclofenac, in everyday clinical practice, as an effective, well-tolerated and well-accepted therapy for both acute and chronic inflammatory and degenerative disease. The prescription of drugs by generic name was low and the average number of drug per prescription was high. Regular educational interventions to improve prescribing practices among physicians at different levels may further promote rational prescribing.