Perioperative medicine & outcomes
Inappropriate Medication Use and Association With Polypharmacy in Surgical Patients: A Retrospective, Population‐Based Cohort Study
Authors' conclusion
Potentially inappropriate medication use is strongly associated with polypharmacy/hyper-polypharmacy and adverse outcomes in older surgical patients.
Study context
- Population
- Patients ≥ 65 undergoing first surgery at Landspitali-The National University Hospital of Iceland, 2005–2018admissions associated with surgery
- Participants
- 17,198 patients
- Exposure
- Non-polypharmacy vs Polypharmacy vs Hyper-polypharmacy
- Outcome
- Prevalence and incidence of potentially inappropriate medication (PIM) use (2019 Beers criteria)
Methodological detailspopulation-based, single-centre
- Population-based
- Single-centre
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Prevalence of PIM use
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Hospital stay · spread as printed in brackets
30-day readmission rate
30-day mortality
New PIM use post-surgery (incidence)
- New potentially inappropriate medication use post-surgery
- 38.5% (95% CI: 37.0-40.1)
Risk factors for new PIM use
- Female sex, increased comorbidity, prior use of a multidose dispensing service
Safety
Postoperative diagnosis of medication-related harm
Original publication
Inappropriate Medication Use and Association With Polypharmacy in Surgical Patients: A Retrospective, Population‐Based Cohort Study. Acta Anaesthesiol Scand. Published 9 September 2025. doi:10.
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