Assessment of prescribing pattern in chronic liver disease (CLD) patients and rational use of medication in a tertiary care teaching hospital

Abstract

Background: Chronic liver disease (CLD) is a condition of liver damage that includes cirrhosis and fibrosis of liver. It is a progressive destruction of liver functions due to inflammation, exertion of bile and detoxification of harmful products of metabolism. Objective : To assess the prescribing pattern in chronic liver disease patients and to facilitate rational use of medication. Method : A uni-centric prospective (observational) study was conducted for a period of 6 months for analyzing the prescribing pattern used in treating Chronic Liver Disease (CLD) patients. All the patients (both male and female) diagnosed with CLD visited to gastroenterology department were included in the study. Patients with pregnancy, age below 18 year and above 80 year were not involved in the study. Result: It was observed that the number of males accounted for the 64% of the total patients and rest 36% were females. CLD affected the age group of 48 – 58 years and the common causes were hepatitis C virus (55.55%) and alcohol consumption (26.19%).