Drug utilization review of cephalosporins in a secondary care hospital in United Arab Emirates

Abstract

Background Cephalosporins are one of the most commonly used antibiotics in United Arab Emirates (UAE). Few studies have been carried out to evaluate the antibiotic utilization pattern in UAE in spite of the obvious increase in cephalosporins resistance during the past decade. Objective To assess the prescriptions pattern of cephalosporins among physicians at a secondary care hospital in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE. Method This observational prospective study was carried out during October 2013 to April 2014. The data of in patients were documented in the predesigned patient profile form and was analyzed for patient's, drug's and drug's therapy related parameters. Results The 3rd generation cephalosporins constituted 83.6 % of the prescriptions, with ceftriaxone being the most commonly used one (81.1 %). They were mainly prescribed for the treatment of the lower respiratory tract infections (60.2 %). Seven (3.5 %) different ADRs linked to cephalosporin use were observed ranging from oral thrush to clostridium difficile infection. A total of 1039 antimicrobial and nonantimicrobial medications were prescribed concomitantly with cephalosporins. Conclusion The 3rd generation cephalosporins were commonly prescribed by parenteral route. Thus, there is a strong need for rationalizing their use to preserve their efficacy and prevent the development of resistance in the region.

Ceftriaxone Drug Utilization Evaluation (DUE) at Prince Abdulaziz Bin Moussae’ed Hospital, Arar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

“…Seven (3.5 %) different ADRs linked to cephalosporin use were observed ranging from oral thrush to clostridium difficile infection. The 3 generation cephalosporin was commonly prescribed by parenteral route[12]. Our study is in complete agreement with the above study that states that ceftriaxone is the most commonly used drug in Saudis (86.7%) & in above study it was 81.1%.…”

Evaluation of cephalosporins utilization and compliance with reference to the hospital antibiotic policy of an Indian tertiary care hospital

“…8,9,23 Similar results were obtained from various studies. 7,19,24,27,28 But it was quite different from the results of a study conducted by Kaliamoorthy et al, in a tertiary care hospital, in which ceftriaxone was ranked third in terms of utilization rate (19.5%) following cefixime (32.7%) and cefotaxime (31.3%). 17 The use of cephalosporins was found to be high for the treatment of RTIs.…”

“…This result is in agreement with the results of various other studies that were reported. 5,7,24 Another similar study conducted by Jonathan et al shows higher usage of 3GCs (95.85%), whereas a study conducted in a teaching hospital in Nepal shows a low use of 3GCs. 18,25 This higher use may be due to its broad spectrum of activity against most of the bacterial species, responsible for causing infections, especially against gram-negative microorganisms as well as the routine availability of these drugs in this setup.…”

“…The findings were similar to results obtained from various studies. 8,[23][24][25][27][28] The present study reveals that the mean duration of treatment with cephalosporins in the hospital was 4.87 days. The duration of antibiotics depends on the severity of the infections.…”

“…This value is less as compared with the standards of WHO (100%). [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] The use of cephalosporins has widely been assessed in the hospital by measuring quantitative pharmacy data to calculate the number of DDD per number of bed-days. 11 The ACI of cephalosporins was 4.95 DDD/100 bed-days of which, 3GCs were commonly used (4.88DDD/100 beddays).…”