ASSESMENT OF GUIDELINE ADHERENCE AND UTILIZATION PATTERN OF BETA LACTAM ANTIBIOTIC AMONG ADULTS IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL IN CALICUT

Background: Antimicrobial resistance is a global health and development threat. Thus it is necessary to define prescribing pattern and to identify the irrational prescribing habits based on guideline to derive a remedial message to prescribers. This study was taken to analyze the prescribing pattern of Beta- Lactam antibiotics and it’s adherence to national guidelines.

Method: Retrospective observational study was carried out for a period of 6 months. The necessary data were collected from patient medical records and the findings were evaluated against the criteria prepared from standard treatment guidelines.

Results: Among 100 patient prescriptions studied 57 (57%) received monotherapy, 43 (43%) received combination therapy of antibiotics. While evaluating the use of monotherapy drugs, penicillin 27 (47.36%) was the most commonly used drug followed by cephalosporin 25 (43.85%) and Carbapenam 5 (8.77%). This study confirms that in non-adherent therapy 38 (66.6%) patients received wrong drug, 4 (7.01%) wrong duration, 7 (12.2%) wrong frequency and 8 (14.05%) received wrong dose.

Conclusion: Only 43 patient’s prescriptions followed guideline therapy for antibiotic utilization. The overall prescribing pattern of antibiotics was not in fair compliance with National Guidelines. An intervention based on the latter is to implemented and since it is antibiotic related a revaluation after a period of three months would be advisable.

Keywords: Antibiotics, Beta Lactam, Utilization pattern, National guidelines