Estudo retrospectivo sobre o uso de medicamentos em neonatos internados em uma Unidade de Terapia Intensiva Neonatal em Brasília-DF

Abstract

Neonates admitted to neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) are exposed to a wide variety of drugs most without data on safety and efficacy. To describe the drug use profile of neonates in NICU of a public hospital in Brazil according to the drugs records and harmful potential of drugs and pharmaceutical excipients. Descriptive and retrospective study of drug use in NICU, with neonate inpatients for over 24 hours and prescription data from electronic medical records over the period from January to June, 2012. Drug information found in the package leaflets were compared with information in the British National Formulary for Children 2012-2013 and in the Thomson Micromedex database. The drug and excipients harmful potential was evaluated according to the literature. Neonates were categorized into groups of gestational age (GA). The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis and Distribution tests tests (ANOVA Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis and Pearson's chi-squared) by GA, with a significance level of p <0.05. Were included 192 neonates, most preterm with median 33 weeks of GA and a total of 3.617 neonates-day. Were registered 3,290 prescriptions, average 17.1 prescriptions/neonate (SD ± 17.9) and 8.8 drugs/neonate (SD ± 5.9), higher in most immature neonates (p < 0.05). The anti-infectives for systemic use, blood and blood forming organs, alimentary tract and metabolism drugs groups showed increased use among the neonates, varying according to the GA. Neonates had higher exposure to gentamicin followed by ampicillin, heparin and phytomenadione. Most neonates (99.5%) were exposed to unlicensed drugs (UL) and off label use (OL), more frequently those with GA < 28 weeks (p < 0.05). More than 70% of the neonates were exposed to any high-alert medications, with higher frequency among neonates with GA < 31 weeks (p < 0.05). Almost all neonates were exposed to harmful and potentially harmful excipients, being greater the number of formulations prescribed to more immature neonates. Gentamicin (sulfate) injectable Solution 10 mg/mL (1 mL), fentanyl solution injectable 0.05 mg/mL (10 mL) and sodium heparin injectable solution were the containing harmful excipients formulations to which neonates were most exposed. Neonates in Brazilian NICU, as in other settings, are exposed to a variety of OL, UL and potentially harmful drugs and harmful excipients, an alarming situation. Safety alternatives and more studies are needed on this topic.