Incidence of Poly pharmacy among emergency patients at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Karachi: An Ignored Paradigm for Quality Drug Therapy

Introduction: A prescription containing five or more drugs is likely to result in adverse consequences that may involve hospital admission, falls, and many other complications. Increasing incidence of Poly-pharmacy among patients visiting emergency department (ED, hereafter) calls for a more judicious and cautious approach to prescription with a focus on long-term as well as short-term health care issues. Objective: To estimate the incidence and current trend of poly-pharmacy among patients (pediatric and adults) visiting ED at a tertiary care hospital. Methods: This study was a retrospective study in which the patients’ data who visited the emergency department of Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) was reviewed and analyzed. The duration of the study was between January, 2012 to December, 2012. The detailed clinical records of randomly selected patients were retrieved out of 51,000 patients who visited ED during the period. Results: A total of 51,000 patients visited ED during the study period, out of those, 372 patients were randomly selected. Poly-pharmacy was common in 69.9% (251) of the patients with elderly population being the most effected age group P < 0.05. Males were 51.9 % (193) and adults were 80.4% (295). The most common triage category was P1 40.2% (100). Top most diagnosis was respiratory tract infection and antibiotic was the most prescribed drugs in ED 91% (340). Conclusion: The perils and problems associated with poly-pharmacy are a subject of interest as poly-pharmacy has been found to be a significant finding among all ED patients.