Prevalence and pattern of potential drug-drug interactions among chronic kidney disease patients in south-western Nigeria.

Abstract

Management of chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients often requires the use of multiple drugs due to a high number of cardiovascular risk factors and complications associated with the disease. Multiple drugs predispose to potential drug-drug interactions (DDIs) which may be associated with increased morbidity, mortality, length of hospital stay and health-care cost. This study determined the prevalence and pattern of potential DDIs among CKD patients attending Kidney Care Centre, in Ondo City, Nigeria. It was an 18-month retrospective study that involved the reviewed CKD patients' records. The Lexi-Interact database was used to evaluate patients' medications for potential DDIs. One hundred and twenty-three (123) CKD patients, made up of 82 (66.67%) males and 41 (33.33%) females were studied. The mean age of the CKD patients was 53.81 ± 16.03 years. The most common comorbid conditions were hypertension in 103 (83.74%) and diabetes mellitus in 39 (31.71%). A total of 1237 prescriptions were made and the mean number of prescribed medications per patient was 10.06 ± 3.97. A total number of 1851 potential DDIs were observed among 118 patients. The prevalence of potential DDIs was 95.9% while the mean DDIs per prescription was 1.27. Among the potential DDIs observed, the severity was mild in 639 (34.5%), moderate in 1160 (62.7%), major in 51 (2.8%) and only 1 (0.1%) was of avoid drug combination. The most frequent DDI was between calcium carbonate and oral ferrous sulphate. The prevalence of potential DDIs is high among CKD patients. About 63% of these interactions have moderate severity. Clinicians and pharmacists should utilise available DDI software to avoid harmful DDIs in CKD patients.