A Study to Assess Prevalence and Drug Utilization Pattern in Hepatic Impairment Patients with or without Comorbidities in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital

Background: The liver is the core of metabolic activity in the body. Around 50% of the classes of drugs are known to be hepatotoxic. Thus prescribing medications in patients with liver disease is indeed a challenging task. Objectives: To study the prevalence and to carry out the drug utilization evaluation of the therapy prescribed among hepatic impairment patients. Methodology: A prospective observational study was carried out for six months among inpatients of the medicine department of Chigateri district hospital. Patients were enrolled on the basis of inclusion criteria; data was collected using a data collection form and results were analyzed using MS Excel. Results: A total of 160 patients were enrolled, the most prevalent condition was alcoholic liver disease (n=66, 41.25%) followed by chronic liver disease (n=47, 29.38%) and hepatic encephalopathy (n=12, 7.5%). Out of 1466 drugs been prescribed, 795 drugs were used specifically for hepatic impairment. Drugs used to treat oedema (diuretics) were most commonly prescribed (n=198, 25%) followed by gall stone dissolution agents (n=124, 16%) and sugars (n=97, 12%). Conclusion: Alcoholic liver disease was the most prevalent hepatic condition, followed by chronic liver disease. The diuretics were the most widely used hepato-specific drugs among the patients.