[An intensive survey of drug surveillance in a medical admissions department].

An intensive survey of pharmacovigilance was carried out in a medical admission department over a 4-month period. Out of 2,017 admissions to hospital, 23 (1,1 p. 100) were motivated by adverse reactions to drugs. Questioning brought out allergy and multiple drug therapy as important factors. Lesions of the skin and mucosae predominated, notably after treatment with antibacterial and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents. The categories of drugs involved were, in decreasing order of frequency: cardiovascular (6/23), anti-bacterial (5/23), neuropsychiatric (4/23) and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (4/23). The fact that the patients had taken several products rendered evaluation difficult. Using imputability scales made it possible to reduce the cause-effect relationship in 26 p. 100 of the cases.