OBJECTIVES: The main objective of the study was to evaluate the prescribing pattern in orthopaedics department in a tertiary care hospital.

METHODS:A prospective, observational, cross sectional study was carried out by collecting prescription of patients admitted to orthopaedics department between January 2017 to june 2017.

RESULTS:A total of 120 patients were enrolled into the study who fulfilled the inclusion criteria, of them 74 pts (61.7%) were males and 46 pts (38.3%) were females. Demographic details reveals that the patients of age between 41-60 were more followed by 61-80 years. Of those patients included in the study 11.6% (14 pts) were smokers, 5% (6 pts) were alcoholics and 23.3% (28 pts) have both smoking and alcoholic history. Of 120 pts, 44% (53 pts) have other comorbidities(DM, HTN, Resp. diseases, Cardiac problems). Average number of drugs per prescription were 8 to 10. Antibiotics, supplements, proton pump inhibitors, NSAIDs and anti inflammatory were more commonly used drugs, followed by anti emetics, anti histamins, antacids and others.

CONCLUSIONS : Irrational use of medication is a potential risk factor that predisposes patients to potential adverse reactions and idiopathic drug related events. Besides compromising patient safety, such events may either cause hospital admissions or may prolong the length of hospital stay levying additional health care costs.