3.2 Prescribed drugs
A total of 5813 prescriptions with 113 drugs according to the Anatomical
Therapeutic Chemical Classification system (Supplemental Information,
Supplemental Table 1) were analyzed. The median prescriptions
administrated to each neonate was 2 (range:1-38). According to drug
categories (ATC level I), systemic anti-infectives were most prescribed
to neonates (1716 prescriptions), followed by drugs acting on blood and
blood forming organs (1184 prescriptions), alimentary tract and
metabolism (1145 prescriptions), and cardiovascular system (843
prescriptions).
The most often prescribed drugs and off-label using drugs overall were
listed in rank order (from 1 to 10) in Table 2. Among the
anti-infectives (1716 prescriptions),
piperacillin-tazobactam (212
prescriptions), cefoperazone-sulbactam (203 prescriptions) and
ceftazidime (191 prescriptions) were the most prescribed drugs.
Aminoglycoside antibiotics such as levofloxacin (2 prescriptions) and
tobramycin (3 prescriptions) were rarely prescribed in our NICUs. Drugs
for blood and blood forming organs (1184 prescriptions) were
predominantly comprised of phylloquinone (699 prescriptions), etamsylate
(162 prescriptions) and heparin (112 prescriptions). Among the drugs
acting on alimentary tract and metabolism, vitamins were most commonly
used, accounting for 82.79%. Among the cardiovascular drugs (843
prescriptions), phosphocreatine (425 prescriptions) and dopamine (136
prescriptions) were most frequently administrated.