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Drugs reactions affecting gastrointestinal tract

ADR that cause damage in gastrointestinal tract usually produce  GI bleeding/peptic ulcerations,  diarrhea (mainly associated to antibiotics),  pancreatitis and liver toxicity.  About 40% of ADR affect gastrointestinal and liver in hospitalized patients. As said before, gastrointestinal bleeding is the most frequent ADRs causing hospitalization or produced during hospitalization. In this issue, we try to review the ADRs affecting gastrointestinal tract.  GI bleeding     Mainly non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and antiplatelet/anticoagulants are implicated in gastrointestinal bleeding. The most frequent lesion is gastric erosions (about 40.2%), combination of gastric ulcer and gastric erosions (16.1%), gastric ulcer (15.0%), duodenal ulcer (13.8%), normal (13.8%) and duodenal erosions (1.1%). In a recent study 26% of patients admitted because of gastrointestinal bleeding had antiplatelet or anticoagulants as the cause of bleeding. T...
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what are adverse drug reactions?

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Key points Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) – unintended, harmful events attributed to the use of medicines – occur as a cause of and during a significant proportion of unscheduled hospital admissions. A careful medication history can assist a prescriber in understanding the patient's previous experiences with drug treatment, particularly in identifying previous ADRs that may preclude re-exposure to the drug. Preventing ADRs depends on avoiding treatment in cohorts of patients who are at increased susceptibility or providing treatment under a therapeutic plan that reduces the risk of an adverse effect (eg co-administration of other drugs, monitoring blood test results). Spontaneous reporting (using the Yellow Card Scheme in the UK) based on the suspicion of an ADR is an important part of pharmacovigilance but, overall, ADRs are vastly underreported across healthcare settings and sectors. If in doubt, it is best to submit a report. An  adverse drug reaction  ( ...
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