Antimicrobial Drug Utilization and Culture Sensitivity Pattern in Sepsis Patients in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Sepsis is a potentially life threatening condition that is caused by an extreme response of the immune system of the body to an infection, where the response damages its own tissues. This study aims to study culture sensitivity and antimicrobial drug utilization pattern in sepsis patients in TUTH. It is a qualitative prospective and observational study, which was carried out in 105 sepsis patients at TUTH. The blood culture was positive in 105 (9.23%) patients of which 60 (57.1%) were male and 45 (42.9%) were female. A total of 59 (56.1%) gram-negative and 45 (43.9%) gram-positive bacteria were isolated. The common isolates were Coagulase negative Staphyloccus aureus (CoNS), Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa . The most common source of infection in sepsis patients was Pneumonia (57.1%). The sensitivity of gram-positive organism was better to antibiotics such as Amikacin (84.8%), Piperacillin + Tazobactam (78.3%) and Gentamicin (76.1%). The Sensitivity of gram-negative organisms was better to antibiotics like Piperacillin + Tazobactam (86.5%), Levofloxacin (72.8%) and Ciprofloxacin (69.5%). The average number of antibiotics prescribed for sepsis patients was 3.07. In our study, gram-negative bacteria were isolated more than gram positive bacteria, whereas CoNS followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae were the most isolated pathogens. Sepsis was more common among male patients than female. Pneumonia was the major source of infection in sepsis patients. Most frequently used antibiotics both empirically and after antibiotic culture sensitivity test were Amikacin (67), Ceftriaxone (48), Ciprofloxacin (46) and Piperacillin + Tazobactam (39).