Monitoring of TPN consumption at the University Teaching Hospital in Hradec Králové.

To standardize studies on the utilization and consumption of drugs, the World Health Organization recommends the use of the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification system, using the defined daily dose (DDD value) as a technical unit of measurement of drug consumption. DDD values of total parenteral nutrition have not been established yet. In our descriptive study the methodology by E. Frankfort et al. (1993) is used. This methodology allows the calculation of both the total number of DDD values for TPN and the number of DDD values for the individual substances. Suggested DDD values and consumption of total parenteral nutrition by E. Frankfort et al. (1994) were compared with the values at the Teaching Hospital in Hradec Králové. During 3 months 142 patients administered only TPN were included in the study. The following data from every patient were collected: sex, age, the main diagnosis, composition of TPN each day and duration of this administration. The mean PDD value for carbohydrates was 200 +/- 41 g, for fat emulsion 77 +/- 27 g and for amino acids 93 +/- 16 g. The difference between our and Frankfort's results were found.