Publication:

Drug utilization of antibiotics in post-operative cesarean section inpatients in tertiary care hospital: a prospective observational study

Background The aim of this study is to evaluate the pattern and rational use of antibiotics in post-operative caesarean section (CS) inpatients in tertiary care teaching hospital, BIMS Belagavi.

Methods This cross sectional prospective observational study was conducted from December 2019 to February 2020, prior permission from institutional ethics committee was taken. Detailed data of post-operative caesarean section (CS) inpatients including age, diagnosis, line of management, complications and any adverse effects if occurred during the study was collected and entered in a specially designed proforma and MS word excel and analyzed by descriptive statistics like percentage.

Results Total 100 post-operative caesarean section inpatients were involved in the study. Most common indication for C-section was cephalopelvic disproportion. Average no of antibiotics per prescription was 3.32. Most commonly prescribed antibiotic was cefotaxime (27.71%) followed by gentamycin (25.90%) and metronidazole (24.59%). Majority (90%) of patients who admitted for ≤3 days (66%) had received combination antibiotic i.e., cefotaxime, metronidazole and gentamycin. IV fluids (21.21%) and analgesics (13.13%) were most frequently prescribed concomitant drugs. Majority (97.8%) of patients received parenteral preparation. 306 antibiotics (92.17%) used were from national model list of essential medicines (NLEM) and 332 antibiotics (100%). used were by generic name. Polypharmacy was 7.92.

Conclusions Cefotaxime was the most frequently prescribed antibiotic. Most of the antibiotics prescribed was rationally from NLEM and were by generic name.