Abstract:
Background: Successful treatment of multidrug resistant tuberculosis requires therapy with
several effective drugs some of which are highly toxic, less efficacious and expensive. Drug
related adverse reactions are common causes for drug discontinuation and poor treatment
outcome among patients treated for drug resistant tuberculosis. Studies related with safety of the
drug and prevalence of adverse effects among patients treated for multidrug resistant
tuberculosis in Ethiopia is not studied well.
Method: Retrospective medical record review was conducted at ALERT hospital from April 21
to May 20, 2014. The study involved patient cohort who started multidrug resistant tuberculosis
treatment at ALERT hospital between November 21, 2011 and October 20, 2013. The collected
data was cleaned, organized and entered in to computer for analysis using SPSS version 16.0.
The frequency, cross tabulation and charts are used to present the results. The mean and
standard deviation was calculated for continuous variables. A P-value of less than 0.05 was
considered for statistical significance.
Result: Between November 21, 2011 and October 20, 2013 158 individuals were diagnosed with
multidrug resistant tuberculosis and registered for treatment at ALERT hospital. Analysis was
done for 117 patients who fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Almost all patients, 116 (99.14%)
developed at least one adverse drug reaction. Hypokalemia 99 (84.6%), gastrointestinal adverse
effects 70 (59.83%) and psychiatric disorders 33 (28.2%) were among the most frequently
occurred adverse drug reactions. High cycloserine dose and residing at Addis Ababa were
independently associated with occurrence of psychiatric disorder and treatment duration of
more than 12 months was independently associated with hypothyroidism.
Conclusions: The adverse drug reactions related with multidrug resistant tuberculosis treatment
were commonly encountered among patients involved in the study. The adverse drug reactions
resulted in deaths, permanent drug discontinuation and offending drug removal from drug
regimen
