Abstract

Background: Antibiotics are most extensively used drugs in hospitals. It is documented that antibiotics in developing countries have been consumed in relatively high levels, and consequently, led to higher occurrence of improper use and greater levels of resistance when compared to developed countries. Aims and
Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze the antibiotic prescription patterns in emergency department (ED) prescribed for various illnesses.
Materials and Methods: The prospective observational study was done by analyzing prescriptions in ED for 48 h of admission in tertiary care hospital, Mysore. The number of drugs and antibiotics prescribed were recorded. Based on this data, the WHO prescribing indicators were analyzed.
Results: In our study, we found a total of 1009 drugs, and 186 antibiotics were prescribed in the 150 patients studied, that is, an average of 6.73 drugs/prescription and 1.24 antibiotics/ prescription. The common diagnoses were organophosphate poisoning (19.3%), multi-organ failure/septic shock (13.3%), and cerebrovascular accidents (12%). 88% of antibiotics were prescribed from the essential drugs formulary list and 47% of the prescriptions included the drug’s generic name. Cephalosporins (54.3%) were the most commonly prescribed antibiotic. Conclusion: The study reveals that practice toward polypharmacy and antibiotic prescribing was frequent in ED. Hence, there is a strong need for guidelines and protocol for the use of antibiotics in ED.