Drug utilisation pattern of antibiotics in an intensive care unit in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Kancheepuram Dt, Tamilnadu

Background: Antibiotics are main stay of treatment in Intensive care unit in a hospital. Rationale and proper usage of antibiotics can prevent drug resistance. Drug utilization study is a component of medical audit that does monitoring and evaluation of the drug prescribing patterns and suggests necessary modifications in prescribing practices to achieve rational therapeutic practice as well as cost of effective health care. Aims and Objectives: To evaluate the current drug utilization pattern of antibiotic agents in the Medical Intensive Care Unit of Shri Satya Sai Medical College and Research Institute, Nellikuppam, Kancheepuram Dt, Tamilnadu. To study the resistance pattern of culture isolates. Materials and Methods: Inpatient records of patients who were admitted and treated in the Medical ICU (MICU) during the study period were included. Demographic data of the patient noted. Prescription was reviewed and audit was done. Results: The use of parenteral third generation cephalosporins accounted to about 40%. Cefotaxime/Ceftriaxone was the most commonly used AMA, followed by piperacillin and tazobactum by 20% patients and ampicillin/gentamicin by 13-14% patients. Klebsiella and pseudomonas were the culture isolates obtained Conclusion: Most common indication for the antimicrobial therapy was infection. In our study there was a considerable use of combination of piperacillin plus tazobactum antibiotics. Beta lactam antibiotics formed the main stay of group of drugs.