Pharmacovigilance & Drug Safety

Biography

Biography: Safa Alizadeh

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate adverse drug events (ADE) resulting in emergency department visits at Farabi eye hospital. Acute ADEs resulting in emergency department visits have a high prevalence however ophthalmic drugs such as eye drops have also a potential for ocular ADEs. The frequency of emergency department visits due to ADEs, the type of ADE, and the suspected drugs were also investigated. In this study all emergency department patients admitted to the emergency department between 8.00 a.m. and 1.00 p.m. during 7 days were included in the study. The patients’ eye disorders and drug history were evaluated by a pharmacist to detect ADEs. The national yellow card was completed for each ADE. Of the 1631 emergency visits, 5 (0.3%, 95% CI: 0.13 to 0.71%) were drug related. Tetracaine eye drops as a local anesthetic accounted for 4 (80%, 95% CI: 38 to 96%) cases. The last patient overused naphazoline drops for one month although it was prescribed by the ophthalmologist for 5 days to treat redness of the eye, resulting in rebound injection and hyperemia. Because all 5 patients abused their ocular drops without a prescription, the ADEs were preventable. Recovery was the outcome of four ADEs after drug discontinuation and appropriate management. Only one of them required penetrating keratoplasty. The most frequent ocular ADE was corneal involvement. Concise monitoring and proper diagnosis of ophthalmic ADEs may reduce ocular complications. As the most prevalent cause of ADE in our study was tetracaine, it seems that the general population should be educated and warned about the hazards of tetracaine drop over consumption drop use without supervision of a physician. The main problem about the local anaesthetic eye drop use occurred with self-administration of the drop without physician supervision; therefore restriction availability of tetracaine drop without prescription is essential.