The prevalence of Adverse Drug Events in septic patients after Rapid Response Team Activation

Background: Antibiotics are commonly prescribed in hospitals, some use are unnecessary or inappropriate, which may increase Adverse Drug Events (ADEs) rate. ADEs can be a leading cause of morbidity and mortality, despite this; it is receiving little attention. A meta-analysis done by Lazarou. J and colleagues, estimated that more than 2 million (6.7%) of hospitalized patients have a serious adverse drug reaction (ADR) with a mortality rate of 0.32%, means ADR causing over 100,000 deaths annually. This study was conducted to evaluate the prevalence of antibiotics ADEs in Critical Care Response Team (CCRT) activated patients. Methods Single-center, randomized, prospective observational cohort study took place at an academic tertiary hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. All adult patients who received antibiotics were included in the study. ADE was defined as any recognized / possible injury associated with antimicrobials use and were evaluated post CCRT (RRT) activation. Results A total of 315 patients with a mean age of 61.1±20.4 who received antibiotics mainly for pneumonia included in the study. 29.5% experienced at least one ADE through the study period. The most frequently common ADE were renal in 12.4%, followed by the hematological adverse events in 11.4% of the patients. Conclusion We found that antibiotics –associated ADEs were common in CCRT patients, minimizing the unnecessary use of antibiotics, following hospital antibiotic guideline and applying other necessary measures can decrease ADEs morbidity rate.