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.