Retrospective Evaluation of Analgesics Prescribing Pattern in a Tertiary Hospital in Nigeria

Abstract

The study was designed to retrospectively evaluate the analgesics prescribing pattern in the Accident and Emergency (A and E) Unit of University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City. The data was retrieved from the pharmacy archives type of analgesics and its routes of administration whether oral or parenteral in all prescriptions from January 2000- December 2006. The analysis was done using SPSS version 13.0 and data presented in tabular form. The total utilization trend in this study showed that analgesic prescription increased over the years except for considered year 2003. The total analgesics utility increment from 2000 to 2006 was 189.5% which was high. Seventeen different types of analgesics were prescribed and utilized. Among them, 8 were utilized orally only, 3 were utilized parenterally only and 6 were used both orally and parenterally for different clinical conditions. Oral administration was more frequently used than parental route. Non-opioid type of analgesics was utilized more than opioid. With oral route being the most favoured route of administration and opioids with exception of tramadol were exclusively administered parenterally. Paracetamol was the commonest prescribed analgesic in accident and emergency department. The result of this study may help to predict the needs of patients thus providing a database for pharmacy stocking template for analgesics to prevent unnecessary donations and purchases. Relevant studies need to be carried out to determine the effectiveness of analgesics in the Accident and Emergency unit of our Centre.