Materials and Method: Prescriptions were randomly collected from the patients attending in the orthopedic department and data were recorded in pre-designed data collection form. Data analysis was carried out by using MS Excel 2007 and summarized as counts and percentages.

Result: A total of 210 patients, both male 115 (54.8%) and female 95 (45.2%) were included. Total number of prescribed medicines was 883, accounting 4.2 medicines per prescription. Among them, analgesics, gastro-protective agents, calcium supplements, antibiotics and others were 30.5% (269), 23.8% (210), 9.3% (82), 7.4% (65) and 29.1% (257) respectively. Of all the prescribed analgesics, Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) were 79.9% (215). Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) were the most frequently (94.3%) prescribed gastro-protective agents. Calcium plus vitamin-D occupied the highest proportion (93.9%) of the prescribed calcium supplements. Compared to total antibiotics (65) prescribed; cefixime trihydrate, ceftriaxone, flucloxacillin, cefuroxime, ciprofloxacin, clindamycin HCl, linezolid and sodium fusidate were 8 (12.3%), 2 (3.1%), 17 (26.2%), 19 (29.2%), 3 (4.6%), 6 (9.2%), 8 (12.3%) and 2 (3.1%) respectively. Types of drug formulation used were oral (92.2%), parenteral (6.9%) and topical (0.9%) preparations.

Conclusion: Analgesics, especially NSAIDs were the most frequently prescribed medicine in the orthopedic department followed by gastro-protective agents. Number of medicines per prescription (4.2) was significantly higher.