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Potential Drug–Drug Interactions Among Critically Ill Pediatric Patients in a Tertiary Pulmonary Center
Author(s) -
Hassanzad Maryam,
ArenasLopez Sara,
Baniasadi Shadi
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
the journal of clinical pharmacology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.92
H-Index - 116
eISSN - 1552-4604
pISSN - 0091-2700
DOI - 10.1002/jcph.996
Subject(s) - medicine , observational study , pharmacotherapy , intensive care unit , pediatric intensive care unit , logistic regression , critically ill , intensive care medicine , drug , prospective cohort study , clinical pharmacology , tertiary care , emergency medicine , pediatrics , pharmacology
Patients in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) are at increased risk of potential drug–drug interactions (pDDIs) because of the complexity of pharmacotherapy. The current study aimed to assess the rate, pattern, risk factors, and management of pDDIs in the PICU of an academic pulmonary hospital. A prospective observational study was conducted for 6 months. Pharmacotherapy data of PICU‐admitted patients were evaluated by a clinical pharmacologist. Interacting drugs, reliability, mechanism, potential outcome, and clinical management of pDDIs were identified using the Lexi‐Interact database. Logistic regression was applied to analyze the risk factors that could be associated with the interactions. One hundred and twenty‐three medication profiles were evaluated during the study period. Diseases of the respiratory system were the main diagnoses among intensive care unit (ICU)–admitted patients (56.1%). A total of 38.6% of the patients exposed to at least 1 major and/or contraindicated interaction during ICU admission. Most pDDIs occurred through metabolic (35.4%) and additive (34.8%) mechanisms. The existence of pDDIs was significantly associated with the number of prescribed medications. Exposure to pDDIs is frequent in critically ill pediatric patients and related to the number of medications. Daily and close cooperation between clinicians and clinical pharmacologists is recommended to prevent harmful outcomes of DDIs.