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Adverse drug events in trauma patients
Harrison M Lazarus1, Jolene Fox, R Scott Evans
1Division of Trauma Services, LDS Hospital, Salt Lake City, Utah 84143, USA.
Background:
Adverse drug events (ADEs) are noxious and unintended results of drug therapy. ADEs have been shown to be a risk to hospitalized patients. The purpose of this study was to determine the rate and nature of ADEs in trauma patients and to characterize the population at risk.
Methods:
An electronic medical record, a hospital wide computerized surveillance program, and a clinical pharmacist prospectively investigated ADEs in 4,320 trauma patients from 1996 through 1999.
Results:
The rate of ADEs in trauma patients (98/4320, 2.3%) was twice that of non-trauma hospital patients (1,111/96,218, 1.2%, p < 0.001). Traumatized females had ADEs 1.5 times more often than traumatized males (2.7% versus 1.8%, p = 0.052). The medication class most often associated with ADEs was analgesics with 54% involving morphine and 20% involving meperidine. The most common ADEs were nausea, vomiting, and itching. Only one ADE was directly attributed to a medical error.
Conclusions:
Trauma patients are at double the risk for ADEs. Analgesics are particularly associated with ADEs and use should be carefully monitored.