A Descriptive Study on Drug Prescription Pattern Among Preoperative and Postoperative Inpatients in Department of General Surgery at SMS Hospital Jaipur

The careful and judicious use of various drugs during the perioperative period can lead to a faster recovery post-major surgeries, minimizing complications, morbidity, mortality, and hospital stay duration. The use of evidence-based guidelines and collaboration among the surgical team, anaesthesia team, and nursing staff ensures optimal patient care. The anaesthesiologist acts as a vital link connecting the preoperative, intraoperative, and post-operative phases.Pre-anaesthetic medications are typically given to reduce the adverse effects of anaesthesia, facilitate the surgical process, and decrease the risk of post-operative complications. These medications include gastro protectives, sedatives, anticholinergic agents, antiemetics, and opioid analgesics. Surgery is performed using a variety of drugs, including inhaled, intravenous, and local anaesthetics, sedative-hypnotics, opioids, and neuromuscular blocking agents. Post-surgery, medications are prescribed to manage pain, prevent infections, control gastric secretion, and alleviate nausea and vomiting. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), drug utilization is defined as the “study of marketing, distribution, prescription, and uses of drugs in a society stressing on the resulting medical, social, and economic consequences”. Drug therapy is a crucial component of patient care management in healthcare settings. Numerous pharmaceutical products with various brand names are available to prescribers and consumers, often at high costs. The global issue of irrational and inappropriate drug use in healthcare systems is a significant concern. Therefore, the primary goal of drug utilization research is to promote the rational use of drugs in the population.

Rational drug use is also defined as "administering the right drug to the right patient at the right time in the right dose at the right price." Understanding the pattern of drug prescriptions and identifying irrational prescribing practices is essential for raising awareness among prescribers.

Regular drug utilization studies are necessary to enhance therapeutic efficacy, reduce adverse effects, and provide feedback to prescribers to ensure rational medicine use. Increasing awareness among doctors about essential drugs, the benefits of prescribing generic drugs, and the use of rational medicines is crucial. Antimicrobial agents (AMAs) are predominantly prescribed postoperatively, and their excessive use can lead to antimicrobial resistance. The World Health Organization (WHO) developed the Access, Watch, Reserve (AWaRe) classification to optimize the use of AMAs. This classification includes 87 AMAs in the Access group, 141 in the Watch group, 29 in the Reserve group, and 103 in the Not Recommended group. Moreover, there are limited studies that have comprehensively examined drug utilization patterns in surgical indoor postoperative patients.