Clinical, Surgical Characteristics, Pharmacotherapy Patterns, and Outcomes among Inpatients at Zawia Hospital
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54361/LJMR.20.1.10Keywords:
Inpatient care, Zawia Hospital, Polypharmacy, Antibiotic stewardship, Surgical outcomes, Comorbidities, Libya.Abstract
Background: Providing efficient healthcare and guaranteeing patient safety in tertiary care settings requires an understanding of inpatient clinical characteristics, surgical outcomes, and drug trends. The purpose of this study was to analyse the clinical, surgical, pharmacological, and demographic features of inpatients at Zawia Hospital in Libya between August and November 2025 and to determine how these features affected patient outcomes. Methods and Methods: 150 adult inpatient records from Zawia Hospital were used in a retrospective observational study. Demographics, comorbidities, surgical type, number of medications, antibiotic use, length of stay, polypharmacy (defined as concurrent use of ≥5 drugs), and ultimate outcomes were all included in the data. Python (SciPy) was used for statistical analysis. Results: Of the cohort, 40% were between the ages of 40 and 59, and 54.7% were men. Patients were split equally between the surgical and medical departments. 63.3% of patients had comorbidities. With a 13.3% complication rate, 40% of surgical patients (n = 75) had emergency procedures. Of all patients, 63.3% received antibiotics, and 40% had polypharmacy. While the mortality rate was 5.3%, the majority of patients (88%) were released. 46.7% of the patients spent less than five days in the hospital. Conclusion, Zawia Hospital has a substantial clinical burden due to high rates of comorbidities, antibiotic use, and polypharmacy. In order to maximise the quality and safety of inpatient care, better preoperative risk assessment, improved medication reconciliation, and greater antimicrobial stewardship are necessary, even if the majority of patients were successfully discharged.
Downloads
References
1. Demeneck H, Luiz Parmegiani de Oliveira A, do Carmo Machado Kneipp Lopes J, Ryoiti Matsunago L, Cavalca Grupenmacher L, Roberto Curcio Pereira M, Benício Stocco R, Ali El Chab Parolin S, Olandoski M, Pellegrino Baena C. Clinical characteristics and outcomes of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in a city of South Brazil: Have they changed through the first year of the pandemic?. Plos one. 2023 Jun 1;18(6):e0286589.
2. Santos RS, Barros DS, Moraes TM, Hayashi CY, Ralio RB, Minenelli FF, van Zon K, Ripardo JP. Clinical characteristics and outcomes of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in a Brazilian hospital: a retrospective study of the first and second waves. IJID regions. 2022 Jun 1;3:189-95.
3. Negruț RL, Coțe A, Maghiar AM. A retrospective analysis of emergency versus elective surgical outcomes in colon cancer patients: a single-center study. Journal of Clinical Medicine. 2024 Oct 30;13(21):6533.
4. Mullen MG, Michaels AD, Mehaffey JH, Guidry CA, Turrentine FE, Hedrick TL, Friel CM. Risk associated with complications and mortality after urgent surgery vs elective and emergency surgery: implications for defining “quality” and reporting outcomes for urgent surgery. JAMA surgery. 2017 Aug 1;152(8):768-74.
5. Kassahun WT, Babel J, Mehdorn M. Assessing differences in surgical outcomes following emergency abdominal exploration for complications of elective surgery and high-risk primary emergencies. Scientific reports. 2022 Jan 25;12(1):1349.
6. Spargo M, Ryan C, Downey D, Hughes C. The association between polypharmacy and medication regimen complexity and antibiotic use in bronchiectasis. International journal of clinical pharmacy. 2018 Oct;40(5):1342-8.
7. Fahmi A, Wong D, Walker L, Buchan I, Pirmohamed M, Sharma A, Cant H, Ashcroft DM, van Staa TP. Combinations of medicines in patients with polypharmacy aged 65–100 in primary care: Large variability in risks of adverse drug-related and emergency hospital admissions. Plos one. 2023 Feb 8;18(2):e0281466.
8. Tadesse TY, Molla M, Yimer YS, Tarekegn BS, Kefale B. Evaluation of antibiotic prescribing patterns among inpatients using World Health Organization indicators: a cross-sectional study. SAGE Open Medicine. 2022 May;10:20503121221096608.
9. Friese CR, Earle CC, Silber JH, Aiken LH. Hospital characteristics, clinical severity, and outcomes for surgical oncology patients. Surgery. 2010 May 1;147(5):602-9.
10. Maestre A, Sánchez R, Rosa V, Aujesky D, Lorenzo A, Barillari G, Monreal M, RIETE Investigators. Clinical characteristics and outcome of inpatients versus outpatients with venous thromboembolism: findings from the RIETE Registry. European journal of internal medicine. 2010 Oct 1;21(5):377-82.
11. Maher RL, Hanlon J, Hajjar ER. Clinical consequences of polypharmacy in elderly. Expert opinion on drug safety. 2014 Jan 1;13(1):57-65.
12. Khalifa AM, Nouh FA, Elshaari FA. Clinical characteristics and outcomes among patients with COVID-19: A single-center retrospective observational study from Marj, Libya. Saudi Medical Journal. 2022 Sep;43(9):1013.
13. Elhadi M, Alsoufi A, Abusalama A, Alkaseek A, Abdeewi S, Yahya M, Mohammed A, Abdelkabir M, Huwaysh M, Amkhatirah E, Alshorbaji K. Epidemiology, outcomes, and utilization of intensive care unit resources for critically ill COVID-19 patients in Libya: A prospective multi-center cohort study. Plos one. 2021 Apr 30;16(4):e0251085.
14. Avasthi A, Khan MK, Elroey AM. Inpatient sociodemographic and diagnostic study from a psychiatric hospital in Libya. International journal of social psychiatry. 1991 Dec;37(4):267-79.
15. Alrifady BB, Khan AH, Zawiah M, Elkarimi AA, Sulaiman SA, Elreyani NE. Assessing drug-drug interactions: Prevalence, predictors, and their impact on in-hospital mortality in hospitalised haemodialysis patients. Pharmacia 71: 1–9 [Internet]. 2024.
16. Aksoy N, Ozturk N. A meta‐analysis assessing the prevalence of drug–drug interactions among hospitalized patients. Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety. 2023 Dec;32(12):1319-30.
17. Ibrahem KM, Said WA, Beshna E, ALneser FR, Rhagem MM, Ibrahem WM, Mahdawi NA. Knowledge, Principles, and Clinical Consequences of Drug Interaction: A Cross-Sectional Study in Subratha Teaching Hospital, Libya. Medical and Pharmaceutical Journal. 2024 Jul 21;3(2):71-81.
18. Atia A, Gzllal N, Gharibe M. Evaluation of drug prescription pattern using who prescribing indicators in Libya: A cross-sectional study. Iraqi Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. 2023 Jun 27;32(1):266-73.
19. Beshna EA, Alahrish RA. Pharmacists' knowledge and attitudes toward Pharmacogenomics in Zawia, Libya. Medical and Pharmaceutical Journal. 2023 Oct 10;2(3):158-66.
20. Tadesse TY, Molla M, Yimer YS, Tarekegn BS, Kefale B. Evaluation of antibiotic prescribing patterns among inpatients using World Health Organization indicators: a cross-sectional study. SAGE Open Medicine. 2022 May;10:20503121221096608.
21. Al-Najjar MS, Al-Qadiri A. Clinical characteristics and outcomes of hospitalized patients with acute coronary syndrome in a tertiary hospital in Libya. Libyan J Med. 2020;15(1):1709146.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Ebtesam Ali Beshna, Akram Ali Beshna, Saher Abdnasser Beshna (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Open Access Policy
Libyan journal of medical Research (LJMR).is an open journal, therefore there are no fees required for downloading any publication from the journal website by authors, readers, and institution.
The journal applies the license of CC BY (a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license). This license allows authors to keep ownership f the copyright of their papers. But this license permits any user to download , print out, extract, reuse, archive, and distribute the article, so long as appropriate credit is given to the authors and the source of the work.
The license ensures that the article will be available as widely as possible and that the article can be included in any scientific archive.
Editorial Policy
The publication of an article in a peer reviewed journal is an essential model for Libyan journal of medical Research (LJMR). It is necessary to agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior for all parties involved in the act of publishing: the author, the journal editorial, the peer reviewer and the publisher.
Any manuscript or substantial parts of it, submitted to the journal must not be under consideration by any other journal. In general, the manuscript should not have already been published in any journal or other citable form, although it may have been deposited on a preprint server. Authors are required to ensure that no material submitted as part of a manuscript infringes existing copyrights, or the rights of a third party.
Authorship Policy
The manuscript authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution and intellectual input to the research submitted to the journal, including design, performance, interpretation of the reported study, and writing the manuscript. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors.
Others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the manuscript but without intellectual input should only be recognized in the acknowledgements section of the manuscript. Also, one of the authors should be selected as the corresponding author to communicate with the journal and approve the final version of the manuscript for publication in the LJMR.
Peer-review Policy
- All the manuscripts submitted to LJMR will be subjected to the double-blinded peer-review process;
- The manuscript will be reviewed by two suitable experts in the respective subject area.
- Reports of all the reviewers will be considered while deciding on acceptance/revision or rejection of a manuscript.
- Editor-In-Chief will make the final decision, based on the reviewer’s comments.
- Editor-In-Chief can ask one or more advisory board members for their suggestions upon a manuscript, before making the final decision.
- Associate editor and review editors provide administrative support to maintain the integrity of the peer-review process.
- In case, authors challenge the editor’s negative decision with suitable arguments, the manuscript can be sent to one more reviewer and the final decision will be made based upon his recommendations.
