Drug Utilization Pattern in Opthalmology Department in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital of Karnataka, India

Abstract

Drug utilization is defined as marketing, distribution, prescription and the use of drugs with special emphasis on the 1 resultant medical, social and economic consequence. The aim of the present study was to study drug utilization pattern in ophthalmology department in tertiary care teaching hospital of Karnataka, India. A prospective observational study was conducted for 3 months in Navodaya medical college and hospital Raichur, with a sample size of 100. The data obtained were analysed using univariate descriptive analysis. The result reveal that the most commonly encountered diseases were cataract (63%), followed by corneal ulcer (8%), pterygium (7%), conjunctivitis (6%) Dacrocystitis (6%), and refractive error (4%). and others out of 100 patients. The average number of drugs per prescription was 3.35. The most prescribed classes of drugs were Ocular lubricant (36.96%), followed by antimicrobial (26.25%), mydriatic (14.82%), analgesic (5.71%). Fluroquinolones were the most prescribed antimicrobial class. Drugs prescribed by generic names is 4%, and percentage of drug prescribed by brand name were 96%. In this study drug prescribed by generic name was very low. Polypharmacy was common in the department as compare to other studies. In the hospital setting drug utilization pattern must be monitored time to analyze their rational use, drug utilization pattern also provides feedback to the prescribers and helps to decrease the occurrence of untoward adverse effects due to the use of medicines.