EVALUATION AND PATTERN OF ANTIBIOTIC USE - A STUDY IN 4 HOSPITAL WARDS

The use of antibiotics in 480 cases in 4 hospital wards during 1988 wa s assessed by examination of medical records. Only the first antibioti c therapy administered during the first stay in the ward for each pati ent was included. Antibiotics were administered to 163 in-patients (37 % of hospitalizations) for infections in 113 (26%) cases. Amoxycillin and macrolides were the drugs most frequently used. Sixty-eight perce nt of the treatments were administered in the absence of microbiologic al data. Single drug therapy was used in 60 % of treatments. Fifty in- patients (11 % overall; 41 % of patients undergoing surgery) received antibiotics for prophylaxis. The exact indication(s) for the choice of therapy was not given in the medical records of 39 % of cases. Treatm ent started within 48 hours of infection in 15 % of the cases. Overall , 93 % of the treatments given were indicated, but 53 % were inappropr iate because they were too expensive, unlikely to be effective or were multiple drug therapy without justification. There are a variety of f actors that cause such inappropriate administration of antibiotics.