Objective:Antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) are effective in developed countries. In this study, we assessed the effectiveness of an infectious disease (ID) physician–driven post-prescription review and feedback as an ASP strategy in India, a low middle-income country (LMIC).Design and setting:This prospective cohort study was carried out for 18 months in 2 intensive care units of a tertiary-care hospital, consisting of 3 phases: baseline, intervention, and follow up. Each phase spanned 6 months.Participants:Patients aged ≥15 years receiving 48 hours of study antibiotics were recruited for the study.Methods:During the intervention phase, an ID physician reviewed the included cases and gave alternate recommendations if the antibiotic use was inappropriate. Acceptance of the recommendations was measured after 48 hours. The primary outcome of the study was days of therapy (DOT) per 1,000 study patient days (PD).Results:Overall, 401 patients were recruited in the baseline phase, 381 patients were recruited in the intervention phase, and 379 patients were recruited in the follow-up phase. Antimicrobial use decreased from 831.5 during the baseline phase to 717 DOT per 1,000 PD in the intervention phase (P < .0001). The effect was sustained in the follow-up phase (713.6 DOT per 1,000 PD). De-escalation according to culture susceptibility improved significantly in the intervention phase versus the baseline phase (42.7% vs 23.6%; P < .0001). Overall, 73.3% of antibiotic prescriptions were inappropriate. Recommendations by the ID team were accepted in 60.7% of the cases.Conclusion:The ID physician–driven implementation of an ASP was successful in reducing antibiotic utilization in an acute-care setting in India.

It is estimated that a quarter of patients with HIV/AIDS undergo at least one surgical procedure in their life time. Surgical outcomes in these patients from developing countries are poorly characterized and surgeons are often concerned about poor surgical outcomes, especially when their CD4 cell counts are less than 200 cells/µl. This study evaluated the surgical outcomes of HIV-infected patients undergoing various surgical procedures over a six-year period in a large tertiary care hospital from South India. Two hundred and ninety-three patients underwent 374 surgical procedures during the study period. The median duration of HIV prior to surgery was 1.9 years (range 0-18.8 years). Two-thirds (58%) were on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) at the time of surgery with the median duration of this treatment being 38 months (n = 194). About one-third (35%) of surgical procedures were performed as an emergency. Abdomino-pelvic surgeries were the most common (225, 60%). Adverse surgical outcome defined as death or post-operative infection was seen in 25 (6.6%). The post-operative infection rate was 5% (20/374). The most common of these was surgical site infection observed in nine (60%) followed by pneumonia in five patients (33%) and urinary tract infection in one patient. Day 30 mortality was 2% (n = 8) and a quarter of these were reported to be related to post-operative infectious complications. On multivariate analysis, only preoperative haemoglobin of less than 10 g/dl was significantly associated with a poor surgical outcome. HIV-related parameters such as CD4 cell counts, duration of HIV infection and HAART regimen did not seem to contribute towards an adverse surgical outcome.