Prescribing patterns of heparins in 14 hospitals of Colombia

Abstract

Introduction: Heparins are essential for the management of
many patients in inpatient services. Objective. To determine
the prescribing patterns of heparins in hospitals in a group
of patients of Colombia. Methods. An observational study
with data of prescriptions of patients treated with heparins in
14 hospitals in 12 cities of Colombia during October 2015.
Sociodemographic, pharmacological, combined therapy, and
co-medication variables were evaluated. Descriptive and
multivariate analyzes were performed. Results. A total of
3776 patients on heparin treatment were found; mean age:
60.1±20.1 years, 56.9 % were women; with a prevalence of
9.1 %; a mean of 6.3 doses per patient was used. Enoxaparin
(74.8 %) and dalteparin (24.9 %) being the most used injecting
anticoagulants. Dual antiplatelet therapy was prescribed in 34.1
% of cases, and the most frequent co-medications were nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (28.9 %), benzodiazepines
(14.6 %). The use of dalteparin, have been treated in Cartagena,
Barranquilla and being a young adult, reduced the risk of
receiving some co-medication. Conclusion. The use of lowmolecular-weight-heparins is predominant without the use of
conventional heparins in clinics, which may be associated with
their easy use, less side effects and greater cost-effectiveness,
making them more convenient for intra-hospital use