Drug interactions in children with respiratory diseases in the pediatric unit of a teaching hospital in Brazil

Resumen

Introduction: the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic responses to drugs can change during childhood, with children being more susceptible to adverse drug reactions than adults. The frequency of adverse reactions and length of hospitalization generally increase as the number of drugs administered increases.
Objective: evaluating the drug associations used in children hospitalized with respiratory disorders in the pediatric unit of a teaching hospital in Brazil.
Methods: this retrospective study was based on the quantitative analysis of data collected from medical records of hospitalized children aged 7-12 years with diagnoses for respiratory diseases and cystic fibrosis with pulmonary exacerbation. The descriptive analyses of data were done using SPSS® v.13.0 software. The Micromedex database was used to identify drug interactions and to determine the classification based on severity.
Results: there were 111 possible drug interactions for respiratory diseases (25 major, 75 moderate, 10 minor and one contraindicated drug association) in 49 medical records. For cystic fibrosis, there were five possible drug interactions (four major and one minor) in 18 medical records.
Conclusions: these findings indicate that pediatric prescription should be confined to essential drugs. The prescription should contain the smallest possible number of medications to prevent possible drug interactions. The availability of a multidisciplinary team combined with a program of active pharmacovigilance can help to prevent the occurrence of drug. interactions.