Abstract:
The objectives of this study were to investigate the outcomes of pharmaceutical care service in premature newborns who received parenteral nutrition (PN) on their weight change, types and a number of complications relating to PN and drug- related problems and the acceptance of suggestion to medical teams about preventing and correcting drug related problems. 45 premature newborns studied and administered parenteral nutrition at Samutprakan hospital from January 2014 to June 2014. The results showed that there were 27 boys (61.36%), 18 girls (40.91%). The average gestation age was 31 ± 2.51 weeks and the average birth weight was 1,432.44 ± 288.06 g. The most common disease was respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) which were found in 37 patients (82.22%). The patients received PN 1 time/day in total of 501 times during this study. After the end of parenteral nutrition administration, 93.33% and 80.98% patients had a change in weight in accordance with the standard for both weight loss and post-weight loss periods respectively. There were 334 complications of which 245 times (73.35%) were metabolic complications and 89 times (26.65%) were mechanical complications. The most common metabolic complications was hypophosphatemia. There were 605 drug related problems found in patients during parenteral nutrition treatment. Most of the problems (601 problems, 99.34%) were drug uses relating to parenteral nutrition. There were 371 suggestions given to prevent and correct the issues and 225 of them (60.45%) were accepted. The study showed that premature newborns who received parenteral nutrition individually formulated for each patient were faced the problems in every process of parenteral administration. Hence, it needs to closely monitor in order to detect, prevent and solve the problems appropriately. The roles of pharmacist in pharmaceutical care service well accepted by medical teams can help preventing and solving the parenteral nutrition-related complications in premature newborns.