Background
Antibiotics are overprescribed in low-and-middle-income countries where the infection rate is high. The global paucity of standard treatment guidelines and reliable prescription data is a barrier to rationalise antibiotic use and combat antibiotic resistance. Moreover, there is a lack of diagnose-specific prescription data from high infection risk departments such as the otorhinolaryngology (ENT). The purpose of the study was to present diagnose-specific antibiotic prescribing patterns at ENT inpatient departments of a teaching hospital and a non-teaching hospital from Indian private healthcare sector.
Methods
Data of all consecutive inpatients at the department (n=3527) were collected for five years (2008-2013). Analyses were conducted for inpatients aged >15 years (n=2909) using the World Health Organization’s methodologies. Patient records were divided into four diagnoses (indication) groups, i.e., surgical, non-surgical, chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) and others.
Results
Of 2909 inpatients, 51% had surgical diagnoses. An average of 83% inpatients in the clean surgery group, 78% in viral infection and 75% in non-infectious groups were prescribed antibiotics. CSOM was the most common diagnosis at both settings (883/2909 inpatients), where nearly 90% inpatients were prescribed antibiotics. Overall, third-generation cephalosporins and fluoroquinolones were most commonly prescribed.
Conclusions
This study highlights prescribing antibiotic to the unindicated diagnosis groups, i.e., clean surgeries, viral infections, and non-infectious diagnoses. Recommended single-prophylactic dose of antibiotic was not prescribed for the majority of clean-contaminated surgeries. Prolonged empirical prescribing and insignificant use of the microbiology laboratory was evident in both settings. A meticulous analysis of clean surgery group highlighted the universal applicability issue of available global guidelines.