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Introduction: Nephrotic Syndrome (NS) is the most common glomerular disorder of childhood with significant morbidity and mortality. As data regarding drugs utilization in various types of NS in children are scarce in India, study was conducted to evaluate drug utilization pattern for pediatric patients of various types of NS at a tertiary care teaching hospital.
Methods: This cross-sectional, observational study was conducted at Department of Paediatrics, Civil Hospital, and Ahmedabad over a period of 24 months. All pediatric patients of NS admitted at pediatric ward who fulfil the inclusion criteria were enrolled. Demographic details, disease characteristics, details of drug treatment were recorded in a pretested Case Record Form (CRF).
Results: Data of 84 patients were analyzed. Male to female ratio of 2.23:1 with the maximum incidence was in the age group of 4-6 years (58.3%). The mean age of the patients was 6.3 ± 2.4 years. Most common clinical presentation was periocular oedema followed by facial puffiness and pedal oedema. Supplementary drugs (multivitamin, iron-folic acid, calcium, zinc) (97.6% patients) were most commonly prescribed drugs followed by antimicrobials (85% patients) and steroids (79% patients). 3rd generation cephalosporin were most common prescribed antimicrobials. Immune modulators used were tacrolimus and cyclophosphamide in frequent relapsing and steroid resistant NS.
Conclusion: This study showed that in this hospital, majority of patients were prescribed steroids along with other antimicrobials. This prescribing pattern seems appropriate as per recent guidelines of KDIGO.