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Introduction: Drug-drug interaction is one of the causes of adverse drug reactions. Generally, drug-drug interaction is common in multidrug therapy. Diabetic patients, particularly due to associated comorbidities tend to have various drug-drug interactions due to the effect of multiple drugs. The objective of this study was to find out the prevalence of drug-drug interactions in diabetic patients. Methods: It was a descriptive cross-sectional study that was conducted among previously diagnosed diabetic patients visiting the outpatient department of medicine at a tertiary care hospital between March 2021 and August 2021. Ethical approval was taken from the institutional review committee (Ref no: 030-076/077). Data was collected from diabetic patients presenting to the outpatient department of medicine using a preformed self-constructed questionnaire. Convenient sampling was done. Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 21 and Microsoft Excel were used for data analysis. Point estimate at 95% confidence interval was calculated along with frequency and proportion for binary data. Results: The prevalence of drug-drug interaction between hypoglycemic and non-hypoglycemic medication was 56 (44.1%) (35.5-52.7 at 95% Confidence Interval) of the patients out of which at least one drug-drug interaction was seen in 48 (37.8%) of the patients. Conclusions: Our study showed the prevalence of drug-drug interactions in diabetic patients to be higher than other studies done in similar settings. Based on the severity, we observed two types of drug-drug interactions; close monitoring drug-drug interactions and minor drug-drug interactions.

Introduction: Local anesthetic used for dental extraction is 2% lidocaine hydrochloride with adrenaline (1:200000). Lidocaine is cardiac depressant and adrenaline is cardiac stimulant; it decreases or increases blood pressure respectively. Methods: A total of 100 patients (50 controlled hypertensive and 50 non-hypertensive) were selected. The study was conducted over a period of 14 months from January 2020 to February 2021. Blood pressure was measured for patients who were planned for dental extraction by auscultatory method. Following that, 1.5-3 ml (depending upon the nerve block) 2% lidocaine with adrenaline (1:200000) was injected using a 3ml syringe (26 Gauge). Blood pressure was re-recorded after 10 minutes from the time of injection. Visual analog scale pain score was obtained during administration of local anesthesia. Paired t-test was applied to compare blood pressure change before and after administration of local anesthesia in controlled hypertensive and non-hypertensive patients. Results: There was a statistically significant increase in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure in non-hypertensive patients (p = 0.008, p = 0.017). This, however, was not the case with controlled hypertensive patients. There was statistically significant increase in systolic blood pressure (p < 0.001). Pain on injection (50% in non-hypertensive and 48% in controlled hypertensive patients) was the only adverse drug reaction that was reported in both groups. Conclusion: 2% lidocaine hydrochloride with adrenaline (1:200000) increased systolic but not diastolic blood pressure in controlled hypertensive patients