• Introduction

    Pethidine is an opioid analgesic which is clinically used for pain control, preoperative medication and obstetric analgesia. Although pethidine has the benefit of rapid onset time, its potential risks include addiction, abuse, life-threatening respiratory depression, and seizure (from the active metabolite of pethidine: Normeperidine). Our aim is to lower the use of pethidine in order to provide a safer medical environment for patients.

• Methods

    The pharmacy department worked with the information department to build a system to inform physicians. When a physician needed to prescribe pethidine for a patient, the system would show a selection window from which the physician needed to select one of the approved usages of pethidine, and the system would also record the physician’s choice. We expected this system to not only inform physicians to use pethidine with caution, but also to provide statistical data with which the pharmacy department could analyze the usage of pethidine. The pharmacy department also held a series of presentations in meetings with physicians to familiarize them with this new prescription system.

• Results

    The system went online on October 2019, so we compared the average use per month in 2019 and 2020. The average use of pethidine per month in 2019 was 398.4 ampules. The average use of pethidine per month in 2020 was 19 ampules.

    According to the record of the system, the most common use of pethidine was pain control(89.3%), the second most common use was to treat the shivering after operations(0.09%), and the third most common use was to treat rigors caused by other medications(0.02%).

• Discussion

    Through this new system we lowered the use of pethidine, but there are some clinical situations that pethidine can be used. It is important for pharmacists to assist doctors in the use of pethidine. Through this kind of cooperation, the medical personnel can reach the final goal: providing a safer medical environment for patients.