Prescribing trends of ceftriaxone in private sector tertiary care hospital in Lahore

Abstract

Drug use evaluation is the method of performance improvement that focuses on evaluation and improvement of drug use processes to achieve optimal patient outcomes. Assessment of antimicrobials can be performed by evaluating their use. The quality of pharmaceuticals is a worldwide concern, poor quality and substandard medicines can cause harm in various ways. In developing countries including Pakistan there are the number of cases reported showing high incidence of empirical use of drugs. Empirical use of antibiotics leads to antimicrobial resistance, which forces the therapy to switch from 1st line drugs to 2nd line. Also increased use of antibiotics other than specified treatment results in increase patient stay at hospital and cost. The objective of this study was to evaluate the drug use practices of Ceftriaxone in private sector tertiary care hospital. In this concurrent cross-sectional study, medication orders of 50 patients who received Ceftriaxone were studied from August to October 2013. Data were collected randomly by using a structured format and evaluated against the standard criteria set from British National Formulary to evaluate drug use practices. It was observed that 42% of patients were prescribed with Ceftriaxone for UTI’s. Majority of the patients (54%) were of age ranging from 20-30 years and from male gender (90%). A dose of 2gm/day was prescribed in 52% of the patients. The dose and frequency that we observed were the same as that mentioned in standard (BNF). The prescribing practices were satisfactory according to our study but it can be enhanced further by adhering to national standard guidelines.