title: Potential drug interactions in surgical patients.
abstract: The incidence and frequency of potentially serious drug interactions were evaluated in hospitalized surgical patients. Drug profiles of patients on the general surgical service of a tertiary-care teaching hospital were retrospectively reviewed for two six-month periods to determine how often drugs that are known for major interactions were prescribed concurrently. Interactions were studied that were relatively well documented and potentially harmful to the patients. A total of 1825 patient profiles were reviewed (21,888 patient days). At least one potential drug interaction was found in 17% of the patients. Interactions were found to occur at the rate of 1 for every 59 patient days. Digoxin and cimetidine were the potential interacting drugs in almost 90% of the cases. Hospitalized surgical patients require close monitoring because they frequently receive potentially interacting drugs.
mesh_terms: D002927:Cimetidine / Q000009:adverse effects; D004077:Digoxin / Q000009:adverse effects; D004347:Drug Interactions; D005845:Georgia; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008510:Medication Systems, Hospital; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative
chemical_list: D004077:Digoxin; D002927:Cimetidine