Antimicrobial Prescription Pattern in ENT Outpatient Department in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital, Telangana, India

Abstract Introduction  Otorhinolaryngological infections are very common in adults and in children also. These infections are caused by various microorganisms and to treat these infections, antimicrobial agents are used frequently. As irrational use of antimicrobials leads to the development of antibiotic resistance and it is a big threat to the society, the present study was planned to get awareness among the practitioners regarding the antimicrobial prescription pattern. Aim  To study the prescription pattern of antimicrobial agents in outpatient department of otorhinolaryngology in a tertiary care teaching hospital. Materials and Methods  An observational study was planned over a period of 8 months from July 2019 to February 2020 in ENT outpatient department (OPD) at Mamata General Hospital, Khammam in Telangana. In total, 562 prescriptions were collected. Patient's details, probable diagnosis, prescribed medication details such as generic name, dose, and dosage forms were taken. The collected data was analyzed and the conclusions were drawn using descriptive analysis. Results  Total number of prescriptions were 562. The majority of the prescriptions belonged to the 21 to 40 years of age group. Males were included more than females (males 320 and females 242). Chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) (16.2%) was the commonest infection. Most commonly prescribed antimicrobial was amoxicillin and clavulanic acid combination (26.17%), followed by cefpodoxime with clavulanic acid (21.9%) and ciprofloxacin (19.06%). In 371 (66.01%) prescriptions, only one antimicrobial was prescribed, whereas in 36 (6.40%) prescriptions no antibiotic was given. The average number of drugs per prescription was 3.18 and the average number of antimicrobials per prescription was 1.25. Tablet form (52.9%) was the commonest dosage form and most of the drugs were prescribed by generic name (74.06%). Conclusion  The present study though prescription pattern of antibiotics and adherence to the hospital formulary by the physicians in the hospital is encouraging, still there is a chance in reducing the number of drugs prescribed per patient. The findings of this study will be useful to prescribe antimicrobials rationally so that the patient and health care system on the whole will be benefited.