[Adverse reactions to medications in patients in ambulatory otorhinolaryngology]

A 12 months prospective study to detect adverse drug reactions (ADR) was carried out in an ORL outpatients clinic. 52 patients (1.8%) out of 2891 examined suffered one or more ADRs. The incidence was higher in women and in older patients. 94% of the ADRs were mild to moderate and 3 patients suffered irreversible lesions. Reactions were most commonly located in the nervous system (50%) and gastrointestinal tract (21%). The most common drugs involved were cardiovascular (40%) and central nervous system (25%) active drugs. Papers concerning ADRs published from 1976 to 1985 in spanish otorhinolaringologic journals have also been analyzed. 0.88% of 1357 published papers described ADRs. The incidence of ADRs observed in our study is higher than expected from the low number of papers published on this subject.