Assessment of antibiotics utilization in respiratory tract infections in teaching hospital

Background: Antibiotics are the main key drugs for treatment of respiratory tract infections (RTI) of both in upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) and lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI), and are among the most commonly prescribed drugs in adults. The caution use for anti-microbial agents (AMAs) is very important as their serious side effects, drug resistance and cost effectiveness can be life threatening. “In general drug utilization studies are carried out to identify appropriate usage of drugs in terms of medical, social and economical aspects. Objectives: A prospective observational study was carried out for a period of nine months between Januarys to September 2018. The information was collected from the Department of General Medicine and Pulmonology Basaveshwara general and teaching hospital Kalaburgi (India). Materials and methods: The prescription is chosen based on the inclusion criteria and the treatment follow-up until the patient discharge. During the study period the inpatient case records will be reviewed, which include antibiotics used and their dosage schedule, route of administration, dosage frequency & strength, date of discontinuation, generic name & bacteriological investigation. The information will document in the patient profile form. The data were analyzed by using online drug information like microdex, mediscap and data were present percentage calculation. Results: The results showed that out of 80 patients enrolled in the study 39 (48%) were given both IV route and oral route, 38 (47%) were given only IV route, 3 (4%) were given by oral route of antibiotics. In our study found that the combination of antibiotics Ceftriaxone, Amoxicillin with Clavunate, Pipericillin with Tozabactum were found to be commonly prescribed. In 42 patients (52%) are prescribed on diagnostic report were as in 38 patients (47%) prescribed without diagnosis of RTIs. Conclusion: The 20% of studied prescriptions founded prophylactic use of antibiotics combination. Thus special measures are imperative for their rational usage to prevent emergence of antibiotic resistance, serious side effects and cost effective treatment of poor economical patients. It can be concluded that it is mandatory to prepare suitable clinical guidelines for antibiotic prescriptions and usage rather than prescribing multiple and combination antibiotics.