Justification.

Pain has a high prevalence in the general population, being higher in inpatient, with figures close to 80%. Pain management is not always suitable due to several factors, one of the most important the lack of knowledge in the management of analgesics. One of the first measures of improving care to reduce pain in a hospital should be determine the prevalence of this symptom and analyze the therapeutic approach performed. That is why the aim of this study was to analyze the use of analgesics in patients of a fourth-level hospital in Bogotá, Colombia, identify the most commonly used analgesics, range of doses, possible interactions and adverse drugs reactions.

Results.

The 78.9% of the patients were pain. Analgesics were prescribed in 561 hospitalized patients. The most used were acetaminophen (33.3%) and tramadol (29.7%). The most common range of duration of analgesic therapy was 1-5 days (81.7%). 37 cases of overdosing and 3 cases of duplicate therapy were identified. 28 cases of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) were presented.

Discussion.

Proper treatment of pain plays a vital role in assessing patient satisfaction. There are different trends analgesic use in inpatient, being the most used acetaminophen and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). It should further investigate on this issue to have stronger scientific evidence to dictate a universal application guidelines for proper pain relief.