Prescription of proton pump inhibitors in hospitalized adult patients

Abstract

Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are a group of drugs whose function is to irreversibly block the proton pump (H+/K+-adenosine triphosphatase) located in the parietal cells of the stomach, decreasing acid secretion effectively and obtaining the expected beneficial effect. According to epidemiological data at the national and international level, their prescription is usually inadequate in a large proportion of the population. In Venezuela, a prospective observational, descriptive, and cross-sectional study is being evaluated through the prescription of PPIs in hospitalized adult patients at the Centro Médico Docente La Trinidad, from August to October 2023. Of the 50 medical records reviewed in patients with such a prescription that met the inclusion criteria, the prescription of PPIs was inadequate in 80% of the patients and adequate in 20%, with a predominance of females at 52%; 28% of the patients were hospitalized by the general surgery service. Omeprazole was the medication with the highest prescription in 68% of the indications, generally at a dose of 40 mg/day intravenously. Of 11 patients, 54.55% of them took PPIs previously as an antacid. It is concluded that there is a high prevalence of PPI prescription associated with inadequate indication; hence, the population must use these drugs under the correct indications and avoid their long-term adverse effects.