Evaluation of polypharmacy among chronic kidney disease patients in Egypt: A cross-sectional study

Objective: To analyze the prev-alence and the hazard of polypharmacy in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients with different CKD stages in an Egyptian ne-phrology clinic. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional observational study was per-formed between November and December 2021 in a private nephrology clinic in Egypt. Patients diagnosed with CKD were includ-ed in the study. They were classified into 5 stages following KDIGO classification. Medi-cations taken were assessed, classified, and distributed according to CKD stage. Results: 199 patients were included in the study; their ages ranged from 19 to 87 years. Ap-proximately 30% of the patients had stage 5 CKD. Upon medication analysis, all patients were exposed to polypharmacy and had associated comorbidities. Dietary supple-ments and anti-hypertensive medications were the most frequently used. Conclusion: Polypharmacy seems to be inevitable in CKD patients specially those who have associ-ated comorbidities which could be managed through proper clinical pharmacy services to minimize medication hazards.