Potential intravenous drug incompatibilities in a pediatric unit

Objective: To investigate potential intravenous drug incompatibilities and related risk factors in a pediatric unit. Methods: A cross-sectional analytical study conducted in the pediatric unit of a university hospital in Brazil. Data on prescriptions given to children aged 0-15 years from June to October 2014 were collected. Prescriptions that did not include intravenous drugs and prescriptions with incomplete dosage regimen or written in poor handwriting were excluded. Associations between variables and the risk of potential incompatibility were investigated using the Student's t test and ANOVA; the level of significance was set at 5% (p<0.05). Relative risks were calculated for each drug involved in potential incompatibility with 95% confidence interval. Results: A total of 222 children participated in the study; 132 (59.5%) children were male and 118 (53.2%) were aged between 0 and 2 years. The mean length of stay was 7.7 +/- 2.3 days. Dipyrone, penicillin G and ceftriaxona were the most commonly prescribed drugs. At least one potential incompatibility was detected in about 85% of children (1.2 incompatibility/patient ratio). Most incompatibilities detected fell into the non-tested (93.4%), precipitation (5.5%), turbidity (0.7%) or chemical decomposition (0.4%) categories. The number of drugs and prescription of diazepam, phenytoin, phenobarbital or metronidazole were risk factors for potential incompatibility. Conclusion: Most pediatric prescriptions involved potential incompatibilities, with higher prevalence of non-tested incompatibilities. The number of drugs and prescription of diazepam, phenobarbital, phenytoin or metronidazole were risk factors for potential incompatibilities.