A STUDY ON PRESCRIBING PATTERNS OF ANTIBIOTICS IN PAEDIATRIC DEPARTMENT OF A TERTIARY CARE TEACHING HOSPITAL: A PROSPECTIVE OBSERVATIONAL STUDY
Dr. Bojja Deepika*, Dr. Narender Thokala and Dr. Sarabu Ajay Kumar
ABSTRACT
Antibiotics are among the most commonly prescribed drugs in pediatrics. Because of an overall rise in health care costs, lack of uniformity in drug prescribing and the emergence of antibiotic resistance, monitoring and control of antibiotic use are of growing concern and strict antibiotic policies should be warranted. Before such policies can be implemented, detailed knowledge of antibiotic prescribing practice is important. A prospective observational Study was conducted from March-August (2012) at a 600 bedded Multispecialty Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital in South India. The prescribing pattern of antibiotics in the paediatric ward was studied based on the WHO recommended prescribing indicators. Out of 140 patients most commonly hospitalized were aged from 1-5 years Acute gastroenteritis with dehydration (27%), bronchopneumonia(22%), lower respiratory taract infections (17%), pyrexia(12.8%), upper respiratory tract infections (5%) were the most commonly found diseases in the in-patient pediatric ward. High number antibiotics were prescribed for patients with AGE (25.51%) followed by, Bronchopneumonia (24.8%). The total number of antimicrobials prescribed were 294 of all the prescriptions and mean number of antibiotics per prescription was 2.1. The parenteral dosage form was mostly prescribed. All antibiotics were prescribed by their trade name. Ceftriaxone (26.87%) was the most commonly prescribed antibiotic, amikacin (24.14%) next followed by coamoxiclav. This result indicates a scope for improving the prescribing pattern of drugs and minimizing the use of antimicrobial agents with the help of laboratory investigations. It is observed that further detail analysis in respect to selection of dose, frequency and duration of therapy of antimicrobial agents used in the wards is needed.
Keywords: Paediatrics, prescribing pattern, antibiotics, antibiotic policies.
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