Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology, Alluri Sitaram Raju Academy of Medical Sciences, Eluru, West Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh, India
*Correspondence address: Dr. Balu Jatthavath, Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology, Alluri Sitaram Raju Academy of Medical Sciences, Eluru - 534 005, West Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh, India, Email id: drjatthavath@gmail.com
Online published on 29 February, 2016.
Antimicrobial agents are the greatest contribution to 20th century, which are used for cure and prevention of infections. Widespread use of antimicrobials has facilitated the development of resistance
The present study was done to screen rational use of antibiotics in the medicine outpatient department of a teaching hospital.
A total of 350 prescriptions were collected from the medicine OPD. Prescriptions containing antimicrobial drugs were analyzed for appropriateness in dosage, duration of therapy and fixed dose drug combinations (FDCs). The antimicrobials were grouped using the anatomical therapeutic chemical (ATC) codes.
Data was analyzed by percentage.
Out of 350 patients, 160 patients (45.65%) received antibiotics. Among them 25.55% patients were prescribed one antibiotic and 18.55% were prescribed antimicrobial FDCs. Out of the 160 prescriptions,47% were irrational. The most commonly prescribed antibiotic categories were β-lactam antibiotics (35.09%), followed by fluoroquinolones (18.88%) and combinations of antibiotics from different groups (13.85%).
Higher frequency of irrational antimicrobial prescriptions suggests that antibiotic restriction policies and a multidisciplinary effort to reduce usage are urgently required.
Drug utilization, Antibiotics, FDCs
