Publication:

Rational and irrational use of intra-venous infusions: a cross-sectional study among patients of a tertiary care hospital

Background Intravenous infusions (IV) are a rapid mean of administering drugs. Hospitals are commonplace for their use, but at the same time they have many serious potential complications. This study aims to know the justified use of intravenous infusion among patients of a tertiary care hospital and awareness about its use.

Methods It was a cross-sectional study in which 249 subjects were conveniently studied. Nil per oral, severity of dehydration, vomiting, and diarrhoea was used as confirmatory criteria for using IV Infusions. Questionnaire with verbal consent was used to collect the data. Descriptive statistical analysis was applied to analyse the data and presented as means, frequencies and percentages in the form of tables and figure.

Results Total n249 (100%) subjects, n68 (27.3%) males and n181 (72.7%) females with average age was 24.05±14.21 years participated. Among n116 (46.6%) irrational users, females n76 (30.5%) were more then males n40 (16.1) with significant difference, p= 0.018. However, no significant difference was found among other variables (age groups, profession, education, awareness and rational or irrational use of IV infusion). Majority n249, n204 (81.9%) were not aware of the IV infusion medication error and doctors were most common unjustified prescribers of IV infusion, n105 (90.5%).

Conclusions The study concluded with the more prevalent irrational IV infusion use in our setup. Doctors appeared the dominant prescriber of irrational IV infusion. This statement is astonishing and must not be overlooked. Female gender, adult age, under-grade patients and students are more exposed to irrational IV infusion.