Potential Drug Interactions in Prescriptions Corresponding to Patients after Liver Transplants

Background: Patients that are subjected to transplants undergo various changes in their lifestyle, including a complex pharmacological treatment that needs adequate management. Therefore this study aims to analyze the potential drug interactions found in the prescriptions corresponding to transplant patients after liver transplants. Materials and Methods: A crosssectional and descriptive study with a quantitative approach, developed in the Liver Transplant Outpatient Service of the Walter Cantídio University Hospital (Hospital Universitário Walter Cantídio, HUWC) belonging to the Federal University of Ceará (Universidade Federal do Ceará, UFC). A total of 31 prescriptions corresponding to patients recently subjected to transplants between July 2019 and December 2020 were analyzed. The study participants were adult patients recently subjected to transplants and aged between 18 and 75 years old at the time of the first pharmaceutical consultation, who had their medical records available, containing the medical prescriptions. The patients’ pharmaco-epidemiological and clinical profile was outlined and the drug interactions were analyzed by resorting to the Micromedex 2.0® database. Statistical analysis used: The data were analyzed in the Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) statistical program. Results: There was prevalence of male patients aged between 40 and 60 years old, and the most frequent etiology of the transplants was alcoholic cirrhosis with no associated comorbidities (31.43%). The most frequent potential drug interactions were the following: tacrolimus + prednisone (27.45%), tacrolimus + omeprazole (22.55%), and tacrolimus + amlodipine (7.84%). The interactions were considered: a) regarding severity, as of ‘moderate severity’ (57.58%) and as of ‘major severity’ (39.39%); b) regarding documentation, predominantly as ‘deficient’ (54.55%); c) regarding the latency period: the majority was not specified (63.64%); and d) regarding the mechanism of action, the following were observed: those of a ‘pharmacokinetic’ origin (41.67%) and those of a of ‘pharmacodynamic’ origin (41.67%). Conclusion: Analysis of the potential drug interactions in transplanted patients is fundamental for the identification of risks, improving the safety of these patients and more assertively guiding the courses of action.