Objective To determine the extent of off-label drug use in Pediatric Wards of West China Second University Hospital in 2010 and analyze its risk factors, so as to provide baseline data for getting acquainted with the extent of off-label drug use in pediatrics in China, and for making policies of off-label drug use. Methods The proportionate stratified random sampling was conducted to select medical advice and discharge medication for hospitalized children in Pediatric Wards in 2010. According to drug instructions, the off-label drug use of prescriptions of all selected children was analyzed in the following aspects, the category of off-label drug use, age, category of drugs and wards. In addition, a logistic regression was done that modeled the odds of receiving an off-label prescription as a function of the following possible risk factors: age, sex and the rank of doctors. Results The total 749 children were selected, and 14 374 prescriptions involving 385 drugs were analyzed. The rate of off-label drug use was 98.00%, 78.96% and 88.05% in children, prescriptions and drug categories, respectively. The main categories of off-label drug use were no pediatric information (29.41%), indication (18.35%), dosage (17.61%) and dosage range (±20%) (13.52%). The top 2 age groups of off-label drug use were adolescents (83.56%) and children (80.58%). The top 4 drugs of off-label use were those for alimentary tract and metabolism (82.28%), anti-infectives for systemic use (75.06%), blood and blood forming organs (79.27%) and respiratory (58.27%). The top 2 wards of off-label drug use were Pediatric Hematology (88.27%) and Neonates (79.12%). In hospital, children, adolescents and male patients had higher risk factors of off-label drug use, and doctors with senior rank prescribed more off-label prescriptions than those with intermediate rank. Conclusion The off-label drug use in Pediatric Wards is common in West China Second University Hospital. On the one hand, drug instructions lack the pediatric information, and, on the other hand, it’s badly in need of developing relevant legislations, regulations or guidelines to regulate off-label drug use, in order to avoid doctor’s professional risks and ensure the safety of pediatric drug use.
Objective To determine the extent of off-label drug use in pediatric outpatients of West China Second University Hospital in 2010, and to analyze its possible risk factors, so as to provide baseline data for getting acquainted with the extent of off-label drug use in pediatrics in China and developing policy of off-label drug use. Methods The stratified random sampling was conducted to select prescriptions of children aged 0 to 18 years in pediatric outpatients of the West China Second University Hospital in 2010. According to drug instructions, off-label drug use of prescriptions of all selected children was analyzed in the following aspects, the category of off-label drug use, age, category of drugs. In addition, an analysis was conducted to check the relationship between off-label use and following possible risk factors: age, sex, essential medicines and over-the-counter drugs. Results A total of 2 640 prescriptions with 8 588 medical advices involving 329 drugs were extracted and analyzed, with incidence rates of off-label drug use accounting for 76.59%, 40.88% and 83.89%, respectively. The main categories of off-label drug use were no pediatric information (35.57%), indication (25.44%), and dosage (25.31%). The top 2 age groups with highest incidence rate of off-label drug were neonates (54.35%) and adolescents (49.64%). The top 4 drugs with highest incidence rate of off-label drug were respiratory system medicines (48.12%), Chinese patent medicines (48.12%), digestive and metabolic system medicines (33.36%), and systemic anti-infectives (16.27%). The off-label use risks in all age groups in the hospital were indifferent, and the essential medicines and prescription medicines were likely to present higher risks of drug off-label. Conclusion Off-label drug use in pediatric outpatients is common with growth trend in pediatric outpatients of the West China Second University Hospital. On the one hand, drug instructions lack pediatric information, and on the other hand, it’s badly in need of developing relevant legislation, regulations or guidelines to regulate off-label drug use, providing more evidence by conducting clinical trials on pediatric drugs, encouraging the development and production of the applicable drugs and dosage forms for children, and establishing the children essential medicine list, so as to avoid doctor’s professional risk and ensure the safety of pediatric drug use.
Objective To evaluate the related laws, regulations and guidelines about off-label drug use in several countries, so as to provide evidence for regulating off-label drug use in China. Methods The following 3 Chinese databases as CBM, CNKI and VIP, 11 foreign databases including EMbase, PubMed and so on, 15 countries’ official websites of pharmaceutical administration department or academic organization, and WHO website were searched to obtain the related laws, regulations and guidelines about off-label drug use. By adopting the system evaluation method and self-defined index evaluation, the quality of the included literatures was evaluated in three aspects: literatures’ type, content relevance and timeliness. Seven researchers independently extracted data by Excel which included basic information of literatures, preconditions of off-label drug use, medicines categories that could be off-labelly used, regulations and legal responsibility in off-label drug use. And finally the descriptive analysis was conducted. Results A total of 4 735 literatures were retrieved, 104 of which were finally included, including 89 at grade A quality level (85.58%) and 15 was at grade B (14.42%). The analysis showed that, a) Seven countries had laws related to off-label drug use: America, Germany, Italy, Netherland, New Zealand, India and Japan. Except India, the rational off-label drug use was allowed in the other 6 countries. The right to prescribe off-label drug was defined in Britain and Ireland; b) Medical staff had to take the responsibility of off-label drug use in the country where the duty regulations were formulated; and c) Ten countries published guidelines or statements related to off label drug use by their official departments and academic organizations. And the regulation included the following procedures: firstly, to obtain the relative information and evidence; secondly, to get the informed consent; thirdly, to be approved by the ethics committee and/or pharmacy administration committee; fourthly, to record the reasons and effectiveness of off-label use; fifthly, to monitor the adverse reactions of off-label drug use. Besides monitoring the medical institutes, the pharmaceutical companies had also be monitored which included the following 3 aspects: a) to require companies to train specialized staffs to answer the questions related to off-label drug use; b) to open the contact information of medical departments of companies; and c) to prohibit preaching and advertising the off-label drug use. Conclusion Off-label drug use has its rationality and necessity. To protect the safety of patients, avoid the risk for hospitals and medical staffs, it requires formulating relative regulations soon in order to manage the off-label drug use in China. As a developing country, China is different from the developed countries in health care system. Therefore, when formulating the regulations, it is necessary to perform evidence-based evaluation on each country’s laws, regulations and guidelines about off-label drug use, with Chinese national conditions and experts’ opinions in combination. After a regulation is preliminarily drawn up, it needs to be put into pilot practice, and then revised and spread to the whole country.
ObjectiveTo retrospectively analyze off-label drug use (OLDU) situation of ambroxol hydrochloride injection (AHI) among inpatients in the Guangdong General Hospital in 2012, so as to provide references for AHI OLDU. MethodsAll medical orders of AHI for inpatients in the Guangdong General Hospital in 2012 were included, and OLDU was judged according to drug labels. We summarized situation of drug use in all departments, analyzed OLDU incidence in administration path and in dose, calculated prescribed daily dose (PDD) and utilization index (DUI) in each department to evaluate the degree of OLDU in dose. Resultsa) A total of inpatients 138 227 patient-days who used AHI were included. OLDU occurred in all departments in this hospital and the total OLDU incidence was 67.06%. b) OLDU in dose occurred in 71.43% of the departments (25/35) with an incidence of 29.53%; the top 4 departments were cardiac surgery intensive care unit department (CICU) (97.74%), cardiac surgery department (97.51%), pediatric cardiac surgery department (72.30%) and pediatric intensive care unit department (PICU) (70.28%) in order. c) The PDDs in CICU department, cardiac surgery department, PICU departments, pediatric cardiac surgery department, oncological surgery ward, neurosurgery ward and intensive care unit (ICU) were higher than the defined daily dose (DDD), of which, the DUI/cDUI in CICU, cardiac surgery department, PICU and pediatric cardiac surgery department were 1 to 3 times higher than normal level. d) No relevant adverse drug reaction/adverse event (ADR/AE) reports were received in this hospital in 2012. ConclusionAHI is widely used in the Guangdong General Hospital, and AHI OLDU is commonly-seen. Further studies should be conducted to analyze the influence factors of AHI OLDU in dose and to evaluate the rationality of its application.
A study on clinical management methods and process of off-label drug use (OLDU) is carried out at managerial level in the Guangdong General Hospital to develop management regulations, processes and strategies of OLDU, so as to regulate OLDU behaviour in clinic. The hospital officially initiated the application-recording-approval process of OLDU in February, 2013, receiving 22 OLDU applications from 5 clinical departments in the first batch. The pharmacy management and pharmacotherapeutics committee approved eight applications and rejected one application according to regulation procedures. In this way, the Guangdong General Hospital well regulate the OLDU behaviour of physicians, which is significant to the further studies in OLDU in this hospital.
ObjectiveBased on the off-label drug use (OLDU) record application of alprostadil injection (Lipo-PGE1) which was the only one rejected in the Guangdong General Hospital in 2013, we retrospectively investigated all the background information of inpatients' OLDU of Lipo-PGE1 in 2012, so as to provide references for intervention of OLDU and effect evaluation. MethodsAccording to OLDU in dose record application of clinical departments, we summarized medical orders about inpatients' use of Lipo-PGE1 during hospitalization in 2012 and analyzed OLDU situation according to drug labels. Then, we summarized situation of drug use in all departments, analyzed OLDU incidence in dose, calculated prescribed daily dose (PDD) and drug use density (DUD) in each department to evaluate the degree of OLDU in dose. Resultsa) A total of 106 576 medical orders involving 8 620 case-times were analyzed. According to the data of cases, medical orders and drug use amount, the OLDU incidences were 34.43%, 25.16% and 41.37%, respectively. Lipo-PGE1 was used in every clinical department in this hospital and OLDU occurred in 69.44% departments (25/36). b) According to the number of medical orders, there were 6 departments with the OLDU incidence in dose > 50% and 5 departments with the OLDU incidence in dose during 50% to 20%. c) The average of PDD of the whole hospital was 12.77 μg. A total of 25 departments' PDDs were off-label, and 10 departments' PDDs were above the average level of the whole hospital. The ICU's PDD was the highest, with 2.35 times more than label dose. d) The PDD in each department was not directly proportional to DUD, which indicated the degree of OLDU in dose was not directly proportional to use intensity. This may be caused by different disease burdens in departments. ConclusionLipo-PGE1 is widely used in the Guangdong General Hospital where OLDU in dose occurs commonly. Since PDD and DUD reflect different contents, the two indicators should be combined to monitor OLDU.
With the perspective of evidence-based medicine, this review aims to investigate the effectiveness and safety of off-label drug use of bevacizumab for eye disease, and explore the barriers to further study. And then, suggestions for the supported evidence and clinical use of off-label drug use will be provided based on this case.
ObjectiveBased on the off-label drug use (OLDU) record application of Alprostadil injection (LipoPGE1) which was the only one rejected in the Guangdong General Hospital in 2013, the interventional measures were carried out to reduce unreasonable off-label drug use of Lipo-PGE1. MethodsMedical orders about OLDU in dosage of Lipo-PGE1 were intervened in through education, communication and monitoring. The situation of drug use was summarized in all departments after intervention through exporting all the medical orders about inpatients' use of LipoPGE1 during hospitalization in August, 2013 to July, 2014 and OLDU incidence in dosage, prescribed daily dose (PDD) and drug use density (DUD) in each department were calculated. The interventional effect was analyzed by comparing with the baseline data. Resultsa) A total of 78 044 medical orders involving 6 426 case-times were analyzed. According to the data of cases, medical orders and drug use amount, the OLDU incidences were 8.68%, 5.87% and 10.53%, respectively, compared with 34.43%, 25.16% and 41.37% before intervention had declined significantly (P < 0.05). OLDU occurred in 69.44% departments (25/36) before intervention and declined to 55.56% (20/36) after intervention. b) OLDU incidences of 22 departments were declined after intervention. There were 2 departments with the OLDU incidence in dose > 20%: ICU (39.68%) and cardiac surgery (32.78%). c) After the intervention, the PDD of the whole hospital fell to 10.52μg from 12.77μg and DUD fell to 8.87 from 15.12. There were 20 departments whose PDDs were off-label and 3 departments whose PDDs were above the average level of the whole hospital after the intervention. The three departments were ICU (13.61μg), cardiac surgery (12.68μg) and rheumatology (11.26μg). ConclusionExtensive publicity and education, targeted communication and regular monitoring and feedback are effective measures to intervene in unreasonable OLDU. After intervention, the phenomenon of off-label drug use of Lipo-PGE1 is improved significantly. This study provides a workable avenue to manage off-label drug use in hospital.
ObjectiveTo investigate the situation of off-label drug use in dose (OLDUD) of ambroxol hydrochloride injection (AHI) in perioperative period among patients for stanford type A aortic dissection in Guangdong General Hospital, so as to provide references for the rational application of AHI in clinical practice. MethodsAll medical orders of AHI for patients had aortic arch replacement for Stanford type A aortic dissection in Guangdong General Hospital between January 2005 and December 2014 were included. The patients were divided into a mild OLDUD ( < 450 mg) group, a moderate OLDUD (450 mg≤OLDUD < 900 mg) group, and a high OLDUD (≥900 mg)group. The preoperative and postoperative features, incidence of PPCs, mortality, incidence of reintubation, time of mechanical ventilation, time stay in ICU, time stay in hospital and the overall costs among three groups were compared by SPSS 22.0 software. Resultsa) A total of 549 patients were included. The incidence of OLDUD was 99.82%. The most common PMDDs were 450 mg (n=358) and 900 mg (n=88). b) The three groups were well matched for perioperative and operative variables. c) The incidence of preoperative drug use was 8.6%. The incidences (5.5% vs. 7.7% vs. 15.7%, P=0.022) and maximum doses (180 mg vs. 300 mg vs. 450 mg, P=0.014) of preoperative drug use were statistically different in mild OLDUD, moderate OLDUD and high OLDUD groups. The days of preoperative drug use were not different (3 d vs. 2.5 d vs. 2 d, P=0.307). The days of postoperative drug use (9.5 d vs. 13 d vs. 19 d, P < 0.001) and postoperative drug use in maximum doses (7 d vs. 8 d vs. 7 d, P=0.005) were different. d) The incidence of PPCs was 100%, and the mortality (8.2% vs. 6.6% vs. 9.0%, P=0.696) was not statistically different among mild OLDUD, moderate OLDUD and high OLDUD groups. However the incidence of reintubation (14.3% vs. 13.8% vs. 27%, P=0.009), time of mechanical ventilation (37 h vs. 50 h vs. 114 h, P < 0.001), time stay in ICU (138 h vs. 178.5 h vs. 316 h, P < 0.001), time stay in hospital (25 d vs. 27 d vs. 34 d, P=0.001) and the overall costs (¥ 0.17 million vs. ¥ 0.19 million vs. ¥ 0.25 million, P < 0.001) were different among three groups. Moreover, they were all increasing along with the dose of AHI. ConclusionAHI cannot improve the prognosis of patients having aortic arch replacement for Stanford Type A Aortic Dissection in a dose-dependent manner. Further well-designed prospective studies should be conducted to verification or falsification.