Study of Drug Utilization Pattern of Bronchodilators and Anti-inflammatory Agents in Acute Exacerbation of Bronchial Asthma and COPD at a Tertiary Care Centre

Introduction: Bronchial Asthma (BA) and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) are inflammatory diseases. Patient clinically presents with difficulty in breathing and airway hyperactivity.In an acute exacerbation patient need hospitalization for symptomatic treatment. Patients also associated with comorbidity and need personalized drug to treat acute exacerbation of asthma and COPD. Aims and Objectives: To determine the prescribing pattern of drugs in acute exacerbation of BA and COPD patients of 40-70 year old age. Material and Method: A cross sectional study was conducted on 175 patients who were diagnosed acute exacerbation of BA and COPD. Study was carried between February and July 2022. Patient demography, history, general examination, relevant investigations and treatment administered during the study period was recorded. Results obtained were tabulated and analysed using mean, frequency, percentage, descriptive statistics and Pearson‘s chi-square test. Results: Our study analysed 326 drug prescriptions of bronchodilators and anti-inflammatory drugs for conditions of BA and COPD. 96% of drugs were prescribed as polytherapy. 92.6% of prescription were for bronchodilators as fixed dose combination(FDC) of short-acting β₂ adrenergic receptor agonist(SABA) + short acting muscarinic antagonist(SAMA) + Budesonide as Inhaled Corticosteroids (ICS).Conclusion: In our study majority COPD patients were elderly age group60-70 year and received maximum number of FDC drugs SABA/SAMA+ ICS. Limitation of our study is small sample size and study did notanalyse drugs used to treat associated comorbid condition and drug safety. Our study needed follow up of patients and safety analysis was also required.