Abstract

Objective: Antimicrobials are among the most commonly prescribed drugs. Irrational prescribing leads to antimicrobial resistance and treatment failure. The purpose of drug use evaluation is to ensure that drugs are used appropriately, safely, and effectively. Use of antimicrobials in different wards is likely to be different due to difference in causative organism and age. This study aims to evaluate antimicrobials prescription pattern in indoor patients of departments of general medicine and pediatric medicine of a tertiary care teaching hospital in Eastern India. Design : This is a cross sectional observational unicentric study. 200 prescriptions from departments of General Medicine and Pediatric Medicine were collected from the record section of College of Medicine and JNM Hospital, Kalyani, Nadia. Prescriptions were selected by simple random sampling. After selection of prescriptions of 2 departments, following data were entered from each bed head tickets- number of antimicrobials prescribed, their name and class, indication of use, duration of use, route of administration and whether generic name was used. Patients’ identity remained confidential. Results: Beta lactam antibiotic was the most commonly prescribed group in pediatric medicine ward, whereas in medicine ward, beta lactam with beta lactamase inhibitor (BLBLI) group was most commonly used. Among BLBLI group. Piperacillin-tazobactam was mostly prescribed.Overall, ceftriaxone was the most commonly prescribed antimicrobial agent. Conclusions: Use of antimicrobials varies in different wards due to different causative organisms. Intravenous route was used in much higher number of patients than oral route. Generic name use was not satisfactory.

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