Pharmaceutical care in transplant patients in a university hospital: pharmaceutical interventions

Abstract

A descriptive and prospective study was conducted on the pharmaceutical care in the post-transplant outpatient clinic of Hospital Universitario Walter Cantidio of Universidade Federal do Ceará (HUWC/UFC), in Fortaleza- Ceará in the period of April to October of 2011. The aim of the present study was to describe the pharmaceutical interventions performed in a Pharmaceutical Care service structured in the liver and kidney transplant outpatient clinic of an academic hospital. The Pharmaceutical interventions (PI) were classified according to Sabater et al.(2005), with significance based on Riba et al.(2000) and the Negative Outcomes associated with Medication (NOM) established at the Third Consensus of Granada. Statistical analyses were performed using the Epi Info v.3.5.1 program and hypothesis tests were done with the SigmaPlot v.10.0 program. A chi-squared (X²) test was utilized for statistical analysis of the sample. A total of 97 patients were followed, where 54 problems related to medications were identified and 139 PI performed. The main PI were in education of the patient about treatment (n=111; 80%) (p<0.05), while the significance of all interventions were appropriate, where 83.4% (n=116) of PI performed in the study period were shown to be "significant" (p<0.05). Through pharmaceutical care, the pharmacist is capable of monitoring the pharmacotherapeutic treatment and intervening when necessary, while being part of the multiprofessional team caring for the transplant patient.