ANTIBIOTIC UTILIZATION IN PEDIATRIC IN-PATIENTS AT A TERTIARY CARE UNIT.

Abstract

Objectives: Antibiotics are key drugs which are used for the treatment of infectious disease and are among the drug that are most frequently prescribe in pediatric patients. This study was designed to assess antibiotics utilization patterns in pediatric ward of a tertiary care teaching unit, Peshawar. Study Design: A retrospective cross sectional study. Setting: Pediatric ward by evaluating antibiotics utilization patterns in pediatric ward of a tertiary care teaching unite, Peshawar. Period: January, 2017 up to March, 2017. Method: Results: There were 219 patients included in the study. In this study, the major medical conditions for which antibiotics were prescribed include pneumonia (23.28%). The most commonly used antibiotics were ceftriaxone, 46.21%, while the most commonly prescribed multiple antibiotics were ceftriaxone plus ampicillin (21.9%) followed by Ceftriaxone & Metronidazole. The average number of antibiotics per prescription was 1.75. At least 114 (52%) patients were prescribed with single antibiotic and patients prescribed with two antibiotics were 72 (32%). There was a high rate of parental administration which account for about 92.26% of the total antibiotic prescribed. It is assessed that 26.89% of total drugs were prescribed by generic name which were extremely lesser than the medication prescribed with brand names 73.10%. Conclusion: From the result we concluded that third generation cephalosporin especially ceftriaxone was most frequently prescribed antibiotic in hospitalized children.