Abstract

A PROSPECTIVE OBSERVATIONAL STUDY ON PRESCRIBING PATTERNS OF ANTIBIOTICS IN ORTHOPEDIC DEPARTMENT AT SECONDARY CARE HOSPITALS

J.N. Suresh Kumar, Farahan Subahan Shaik, Hepsiba Angel Akumarthi*, Divya Janarajupalli, Naga Raju Kotha and Shaik Monsoor Azmal

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Frequent antibiotic prescribing in departments with high infection risk like Orthopaedic department prominently contributes to the global increase of antibiotic resistance. Antibiotics are generally prescribed for both prophylactically and to treat current infections in the Orthopaedic department. So, assessment of prescribing pattern at regular intervals is essential to avoid inappropriate use of antibiotics. Materials and Methods: This is a prospective observational study conducted in Orthopaedic department for a period of 6 months at Sri Raghavendra Multi-speciality Hospital along with other secondary care hospitals to analyse the records of patients who had any courses of antibiotics are included and relevant data was extracted by using patient data collection forms. Results: In this study a total of 130 patients prescribed with antibiotics were reviewed prospectively among them 55.38% (n=72) were male and 44.61% (n=58) were female. The most commonly prescribed class of antibiotics were Cephalosporins (n=116); among which 3rd generation cephalosporin Ceftriaxone (69.23%) is majorly used and least prescribed class of antibiotics were Carbapenems (1.5%). The most common diagnosis in our study, for which patients were admitted was Fracture of different parts of body, implant removal etc. Among the antibiotics prescribed, 88.27% were given through intravenous route and 11.73% were given through oral. The results revealed that 63.84% of prescriptions contain mono-antibiotic therapy and 36.15% of prescriptions contain poly-antibiotic therapy. Conclusion: Majority of the patients received mono-antibiotic therapy and this shows limited use of antibiotics. Cephalosporins were prescribed more frequently to the patients. Prescribing by generic name should be initiated which would help in cost minimization. The dosage & frequency of antibiotics is according to standards as the PDD/DDD ratio of most of the prescribed antibiotics was found to be less than 1.

Keywords: Antibiotics, Prescribing Patterns, Orthopedics, Resistance.