A BROAD SURVEY AND COMPREHENSIVE STUDY ON UTILIZATION PATTERN OF ANTIBIOTICS IN TERTIARY CARE TEACHING HOSPITAL IN NORTH KARNATAKA

An ongoing, systematic process designed to maintain the appropriate and effective use of drugs is Drug Use Evaluation (DUE). It involves a comprehensive review of patient’s prescription and medication data before, during, and after dispensing in order to assure appropriate therapeutic decision making and positive patient outcomes. The aim of the present study is to conduct a prospective study on utilization pattern of antibiotics in the department of medical teaching hospital situated in North Karnataka to evaluate the rational use of antibiotics, by comparing with the standard Clinical guidelines. The study is a Prospective observational with a sample size of 250 patients conducted using structured data entry forms. In our study, 155 patients were male and 95 were female. The most commonly used class of antibiotics are Cephalosporins (31.2%) preceded by Fluoroquinolones and Azoles. Penicillin’s were also prescribed for most of the infectious diseases. The duration of hospital stay is for more than 7 dayswith prolonged use of antimicrobial agents which does not provide an additional therapeutic benefit while the cost and the adverse effects simultaneously escalate. In comparison with the standard guidelines, deviations and under practice of diagnosis and treatment was observed. It is concluded from the present study that, though there is successful combat of infection using antimicrobial agents it is desirable to adopt treatment protocol to increase the success rate. Pharmacists involved in DUE programs can directly improve the quality of health care of patients.