A Study to Assess Prevalence and Drug Utilization Pattern in Hepatic Impairment Patients with or without Comorbidities in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital

Abstract

<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Background: </strong>The liver is the core of metabolic activity in the body. Around 50% of the classes of drugs are known to be hepatotoxic. Thus prescribing medications in patients with liver disease is indeed a challenging task.<strong> Objectives:</strong> To study the prevalence and to carry out the drug utilization evaluation of the therapy prescribed among hepatic impairment patients. <strong>Methodology:</strong> A prospective observational study was carried out for six months among inpatients of the medicine department of Chigateri district hospital. Patients were enrolled on the basis of inclusion criteria; data was collected using a data collection form and results were analyzed using MS Excel. <strong>Results: </strong>A total of 160 patients were enrolled, the most prevalent condition was alcoholic liver disease (<em>n</em>=66, 41.25%) followed by chronic liver disease (<em>n</em>=47, 29.38%) and hepatic encephalopathy (<em>n</em>=12, 7.5%). Out of 1466 drugs been prescribed, 795 drugs were used specifically for hepatic impairment. Drugs used to treat oedema (diuretics) were most commonly prescribed (<em>n</em>=198, 25%) followed by gall stone dissolution agents (<em>n</em>=124, 16%) and sugars (<em>n</em>=97, 12%). <strong>Conclusion: </strong>Alcoholic liver disease was the most prevalent hepatic condition, followed by chronic liver disease. The diuretics were the most widely used hepato-specific drugs among the patients. <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Key words:</strong> Drug utilization pattern, Hepatic impairment, Abstinence, Diuretics.