Adverse drug reactions in children requiring hospital admission.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To study the incidence of adverse drugs reactions (ADRs) in children admitted to Lady Ridgeway Hospital (LRH), Colombo. DESIGN: A prospective hospital based descriptive study. SETTING: Medical units of LRH, Colombo. METHODS: Information was collected by a hospital based investigator who visited the medical units at LRH from February to December 2002. The Naranjo algorithm was used to classify the information. REMARKS: During the 11 month study period, 63 admissions were due to ADRs, the commonest being secondary to administration of antibiotics. CONCLUSIONS: ADRs accounted for only 0.16% of admissions as compared to about 2% in North America. The commonest ADRs were due to antibiotics.