EVALUATION OF PRESCRIBING PATTERN OF ANTI-MICROBIAL AGENTS USED IN OPHTHALMOLOGY OUTPATIENT DEPARTMENT AT TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Introduction: Many antimicrobials have been developed for eye infections in the past years. The purpose of drug utilization studies is to examine the prescribing habits of ophthalmologists in a tertiary care teaching hospital. They are a subset of pharmaco-epidemiological exercise. Aim and Objective: To analyze pattern of antimicrobial drugs at ophthalmology OPD. Method: This was observational study for prescription pattern of outpatient and analyzed over a period of 3 months from June 2025 to August 2025 using a predesigned case record form for each patient. Patient consent and Institutional Ethics Committee approval were obtained. Result: A total of 266 participants were enrolled in the study among them the most common complaint was blurred vision in 92(34.58%) followed by eye watering in 64(24.06%). Most common indication for antimicrobial was infective conjunctivitis in 112 (42.11%). Total number of drugs prescribed was 578 so the average number of drugs per prescription is 2.17. Out of 578 drugs 156(26.99%) were antimicrobials. Fluoroquinolones (FQ) 128(82.05%) out of 156 antimicrobials was maximum prescribed antibacterial, and ciprofloxacin (46.20%) was the most commonly used antibacterial. While lubricant was leading prescribed medicine with 218 (37.72%) out of 578 drugs prescribed Maximum prescribed dosage form was eye drop 356(61.59%) and polypharmacy was seen in 7.51%. No ADRs were reported. Summary: The common prescription errors were minimum with rational use of antimicrobials and there was less evidence of polypharmacy directing towards reducing the development of antibiotic resistance. Conclusion: Periodic auditing of the prescription will help to measure the impact of intervention and in the era of rapidly developing antibiotic resistance, our finding may help to improve the practice of rational drug prescription and patient care.