Tehran University Medical Journal

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Background: Stress Ulcer Prophylaxis (SUP) is important in patients in Intensive Care Units (ICU). In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of the American Society of Health System Pharmacists (ASHP) guidelines, for stress ulcer prophylaxis. Methods: In this Quasi experimental study, data of patients that admitted to the ICU of Imam Khomeini Hospital of Urmia was recorded for three months. Then our guideline that was selected on the basis of ASHP guidelines were presented to physicians for one month and then patients’ data were collected again. The patients that hospitalized due to acute gastrointestinal bleeding and died in the early hours of admission were excluded. The data were analyzed. Results: This study involved 234 patients, of them 112 patients (91.1%) in the pre- intervention period and 99 patients (89.2%) in the post-intervention period had received acid-suppressive therapy (AST) (P=0.632). Of 77 patients (62.8%) in the pre- intervention period and 88 (79.3%) in the post-intervention period had an indication for SUP according to our ASHP-based guideline (P=0.005). Of the patients without an indication for SUP, 39 of 123 (31.7%) received AST in the pre-intervention period versus 18 of 111 (16.2%) in the post-intervention period (P=0.006). of 112 (91.1%) cases in the pre-intervention period compared with 93 (83.8%) cases of the prescription drug order was incorrect (P=0.092). Gastrointestinal bleeding were in five patients (4.1%) found during the pre-intervention period and 8 (7.2%) cases in the post-intervention period (P=0.295). Conclusion: In this study the majority of cases not been in accordance with the ASHP-based guideline and our education did not affect the quality of stress ulcer prophylaxis. It seems that more attention to the training of physician in the prophylaxis of stress ulcer can be effective in improving the health status of patients and additional costs may be reduced.