[Adverse drug events in patients hospitalized in internal medicine]

Adverse drug events (ADE) are a public health problem, the dimension of which is difficult to quantify because it is under-reported. We have aimed to identify and describe the ADEs recorded in the minimum basic data set (MBDS) of the Internal Medicine Services during the years 2005-7.

A cross-sectional study. Those episodes coded as such, according to the ICD-9-CM, in the discharge reports of all the patients hospitalized during 2005-07 in the entire Spanish territory, were selected. The sociodemographic variables, diagnostic categories and types of drugs, among others, were described and analyzed.

Of the 1,567,659 discharges coded in the Minimum Basic Data Set" (MBDS), 96,607 ADEs were recorded in 86,880 episodes (5.55%). Of these 82.86% were not preventable and 17.14% were preventable. A total of 4.5% of the episodes recorded an adverse drug reaction (ADR). The ADE's were more frequent in women and the appearance of an ADR during admission was accompanied by an increase in the hospital stay.

The MBDS is a useful tool for the identification, quantification and analysis of the ADRs, however, it is limited by the low recording of the discharge reports.