A Retrospective Study on Prescribing Patterns and Cost Analysis of Proton Pump Inhibitors

BACKGROUND: PPIs are the most commonly used drugs in clinical practice; inappropriate prescribing may result in increased therapeutic load and treatment cost as well. Hence, a study was conducted to determine the prescribing pattern (rationality and irrationality) of both iv and oral PPIs in tertiary care teaching hospital and cost minimization process can be used only to compare two products that have been shown to be equivalent in dose and therapeutic effect. AIM AND OBJECTIVE: 1. To analyze the prescribing pattern of Proton pump inhibitors. 2. To assess the rationality of prescribing oral and iv Proton pump inhibitors. 3. To estimate the cost of iv and oral Proton pump inhibitors. METHOD: A retrospective observational study was carried out in a multispecialty tertiary care hospital on patients’ medical records from Department of Gastroenterology and Department of general surgery. The study sample size were 341, the exclusion criteria were patients who did not receive Oral and IV PPIs and patients under 18 years old. The cost of the prescribed PPI brands is compared with the cost of other available brands in the hospital pharmacy. RESULTS: Most of the patients were seen under the age category between 41-60 years (62.8%). The majority of the patients were Male in this study (69.5%). Most of the patients were included from the Department of Gastroenterology (63.3%). Pantoprazole was administered in a majority of 308 patients (90.3%). Indication for giving PPIs in 181 Patients were Multi-drug use (53.1%) which was majority. 208 patients received PPI through intravenous route (61%). Most of the patients in the study received PPI for a duration of 4 days in 65 patients (19.1%). 282 patients received rational therapy (82.7%) which was a greater extent. Pan 40 (Pantoprazole) was seen to be the most prescribed brand in this study. The cost of pan 40 was reasonable compared to the other prescribed brands. However, Omez (Omeprazole) was the prescribed brand with least cost. CONCLUSION: Pantoprazole was the most ...