Publication:

A questionnaire based survey to evaluate the usage pattern of carbapenems for sepsis management in intensive care unit

Background Sepsis remains one of the most common critical illnesses for patients to be admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) and has very high associated morbidity and mortality ranging from 18 to 50%. It is a well-known fact that early goal directed therapy with broad spectrum antibiotics, IV fluids and other supportive therapies improve outcome. The current study was done to know the importance of carbapenems in the management of sepsis focusing on perceived use and the clinical outcome in real time setting in tertiary care hospitals.

Methods A structured questionnaire designed to collect information on the perceived use of carbapenems, the clinical outcome, response period for clinical cure and combination antibiotic therapy preferred with carbapenem was circulated among 50 clinicians in tertiary care hospitals and nursing homes in and around Mangalore between January 2015 to March 2015.

Results Majority of doctors (>80%) felt that carbapenems a broad spectrum antibiotic administration provided good clinical improvement in hospital infections along with improvement in blood cell count and bacteriological cure.

Conclusions Our study provides an important insight regarding the knowledge, practice pattern and clinical outcome through the use of carbapenem in Sepsis management in ICU’s around Mangalore. The experience of practice patterns and clinical outcomes with carbapenem shared by doctors through this survey is similar to that in other studies.