[Pharmaceutical counselling and evaluation of the knowledge of hospitalized patients treated with anti-vitamin K drugs].

The report published by the French Agency for the Medical Safety of Health Products in 2001 estimated the number of hospital admissions in France for hemorrhagic accidents caused by oral anticoagulants (OA) to be 17,000. For this reason, we have set up pharmaceutical counselling for hospitalized patients treated with OA. The object of this article is to describe this therapeutic education program and to present the level of knowledge that patients have of their OA treatment. Among 68 patients treated prior to their admission, 87% knew the name of the OA, 86% the role of this treatment, 80% the dosing schedule, 57% what to do if a dose had been forgotten, 34% the signs of overdose, 48% the signs of and risks associated with not following the treatment schedule, 94% the advantage of biological follow-up and 68% the principal combinations of drugs that should be avoided. Among 118 patients whose treatment was begun during hospitalization, the level of knowledge for each item were respectively: 41%, 61%, 38%, 37%, 19%, 23%, 34% and 24% at the time of counselling. Newly treated patients acquired their knowledge from contact with nurses. The least known items were the symptoms and risks associated with overdosing or underdosing. This knowledge is therefore fragmentary and does not guarantee the patients' safety, which justifies the proposition of this type of counselling to such hospitalized patients.