Abstract

DRUG UTILIZATION EVALUATION OF CEPHALOSPORINS IN MEDICINE WARD OF A TERTIARY CARE TEACHING HOSPITAL, NEPAL

Rabindra Kumar Rokaya*, Renu Karki, Himal Barakoti and Nim Bahadur Dangi

ABSTRACT

Drug Utilization Evaluation (DUE) is defined as a structured systematic process of monitoring and evaluating the prophylactic, therapeutic and empiric use of drugs to help and assure that they were provided appropriately, safely and effectively. A prospective observational study with total sample size 126 was designed to determine DUE of antibiotic Cephalosporin on the admitted patient of medicine ward of tertiary care teaching hospital, Nepal. The highest number of patients (29 out of 126) belonged to the age group 61-70. The percentage of male and female patients enrolled in the study was 52.38% and 47.62% respectively. Out of 127 prescriptions of cephalosporins, 96.06% were administered through intravenous whereas 3.94% were administered through oral route of administration. Individually used cephalosporin gave the data as ceftriaxone (85.83%), ceftazidime (7.88%), cefotaxime (1.57%), cefepime (0.78%) and cefixime (3.94%). The usage of cephalosporin was found to be indicated highest in the respiratory system (46.04%) followed by renal system (15.87%). Gastrointestinal drugs (160 out of 613) were used most frequently followed by the antimicrobials (100 out of 613). Among 100 antimicrobials, azithromycin (41%) was found to be most frequently co-administered antibiotics followed by levofloxacin (20%), doxofylline (10%), metronidazole (9%), ciprofloxacin (6%), combination of piperacillin and tazobactam (3%), clindamycin (3%) and vancomycin (6%). Only 2 out of 126 prescriptions were found to be associated with drug interactions. The interactions audited are furosemide with ceftriaxone (1 out of 126 prescriptions) and ceftazidime (1 out of 126 prescriptions). The study provided the data on the nature and extent of utilization of cephalosporins in patients admitted to the medicine ward of tertiary care teaching hospital in Nepal.

Keywords: Cephalosporin, dosage regimen, drug utilization, drug interaction.