Paracetamol dosing in hospital and on discharge for older people who are frail or have low body weight.

AIMS

To describe paracetamol dosing and liver function test (LFT) monitoring in older hospital inpatients who are frail or have low body weight.

METHODS

Retrospective observational study, at a 790-bed metropolitan public health service in Australia. Patients aged ≥70 years, with body weight <50 kg or frailty index based on laboratory data (FI-Lab) score ≥0.3, who were administered paracetamol during an admission with length-of-stay >72 hours, were included. Data were extracted from electronic medical records. Paracetamol doses administered in hospital, and doses prescribed on discharge, were compared against consensus guidelines that recommended ≤60 mg/kg/d for older people weighing <50 kg, and ≤3000 mg/d for frail older people.

RESULTS

In total, 240 admissions (n = 229 patients, mean age 84.7 years) were analysed. During 150 (62.5%) admissions, higher than recommended paracetamol doses were prescribed. On 138 (57.5%) occasions, patients were prescribed paracetamol on discharge, and 112/138 (81.2%) doses were higher than recommended. Most discharge prescriptions (97/138, 70.3%) were for regular administration. The median daily dose on discharge for patients <50 kg was 83.7 mg/kg (interquartile range 73.6-90.9 mg/kg). For frail patients ≥50 kg, the median daily discharge dose was 3990 mg (interquartile range 3000-4000 mg). LFTs were measured in hospital for 151/200 (75.5%) and 93/166 (56.0%) patients who received paracetamol for >48 hours and >5 days, respectively.

CONCLUSION

Majority of paracetamol doses prescribed for frail or low-weight older patients in hospital and on discharge were higher than recommended in consensus guidelines. LFTs were not measured for 44% patients who received paracetamol regularly for >5 days. Further studies are needed to explore long-term outcomes of this practice.