Abstract
Antibiotic prophylaxis is used to decrease the bacterial load in the wound to assist the natural host defenses in preventing the occurrence of surgical site infections. The present study aimed to investigate trends in using antibiotic prophylaxis in the surgical ward of a governmental hospital in the Riyadh Region and included collecting data concerning the use of antibiotic prophylaxis from medical electronic records. During 2020, most of the surgical patients received systemic antibiotics (82.40%). The most prescribed antibiotics were ceftriaxone (28.44%) and metronidazole (26.36%). The study also found that most of the patients received antibiotics for seven days or for five days, and only 1.08% of the patients received antibiotics appropriately for a maximum of one day. The present study showed that there was a major problem in selecting the correct antibiotic and in the duration of its use compared with the recommendations of the surgical prophylaxis guideline that was issued by the Saudi Ministry of Health. Thus, there is an urgent need to improve the adherence to the recommendations of surgical antibiotic prophylaxis guidelines in order to reduce the occurrence of negative consequences.
Highlights
Health care-associated infections (HCAIs) are infections that occur while receiving health care and that develop in health care facilities such as hospitals [1]
The surgical prophylaxis guideline that was issued by the Ministry of Health and was implemented in governmental hospitals in Saudi Arabia recommended the use of first- or second-generation cephalosporins as a first line for most surgeries and not ceftriaxone [18]
Al-Azzam et al found that preoperative antibiotic prophylaxis was employed in almost all surgical departments of hospitals, and the choice of improper antimicrobials was ascribed to drug unavailability [32]
Summary
Health care-associated infections (HCAIs) are infections that occur while receiving health care and that develop in health care facilities such as hospitals [1] These infections first appear 48 h or more after patient admission or appear within 30 days after receiving health care [1]. HCAIs include catheter-associated urinary tract infections, ventilatorassociated pneumonia, central line-associated bloodstream infections, and surgical site infections (SSIs) [2]. These infections are common and result in a high mortality rate. Surgical site infection (SSI) is a common hospital-acquired infection that causes significant health problems and results in prolonged hospitalization and increased treatment cost, in addition to increased patient mortality and morbidity [4]. Most of these infections are SSIs, which account for approximately 5.6% of surgically admitted patients [5]
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