Higher incidence of prescribing rates and utilization of broad spectrum cephalosporin in young patients: A retrospective observational study in a tertiary care hospital.

ABSTRACT

Frequent use of antibiotics has been developed resistance and the use of broad spectrum cephalosporin must be limited in children. The study evaluated the association of prescribing patterns of third generation cephalosporin with diagnosis, age, availability of cultural sensitivity report and gender. It is an observational study that was carried out in the duration of six months in a low socio-economic tertiary care hospital. The data of six hundred and eighty-five (685) patients were collected from the medical records of the tertiary hospital. The cephalosporin are the most prescribed antibiotics in children 118/217 (54.3%) followed by adults 119/403 (29.5%) and teenagers 18/65 (27.6%). Whereas, 75/217 (34.5%), 126/403 (31.2%) and 22/65 (33.8%) were prescribed cephalosporin with combination in patients respectively. The culture sensitivity was performed only in 25% of patients i.e., 173/685, Of 173 culture reports 70 and 91 cases from children and adults respectively. Blood is mostly examined specimen in children and urine in adults. Escherichia coli was highly recovered pathogen in culture sensitivity report. The study concluded broad spectrum cephalosporin antibiotics were highly prescribed in children. The culture sensitivity was performed in limited number of patients. Antibiotics stewardship programme will be implemented to reduce the prescribing of broad spectrum cephalosporin in young patients.