Adverse drug events in trauma patients

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.

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.

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.

Trauma patients are at double the risk for ADEs. Analgesics are particularly associated with ADEs and use should be carefully monitored.