Drug Utilization Evaluation of Antibiotics in Intensive Care Units of a Referral Teaching Hospital

Drug Utilization Evaluation (DUE) studies are designed to assess drug usage appropriateness. This study aimed to evaluate the drug utilization of antibiotics in the intensive care units (ICUs) of a referral teaching hospital.

Patients hospitalized in ICU who received antibiotics were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. Patients’ medical charts were reviewed and data including indication of antibiotics, dosing, dose adjustment, and culture sensitivity test were recorded in a predesigned data collection form. Related guidelines and references were used for judgement about the correctness of these parameters.

Among 182 evaluated antibiotic prescriptions, 75.8% of the cases were prescribed empirically that for 31.88% of them, microbial culture and sensitivity test were requested. Indication was appropriate in 51.6%. Fifteen patients needed antibiotic dose adjustment that was performed just for 4 patients. Doses of antibiotics were correct in 58.5% of cases. Meropenem (15.9%), Metronidazole (15.9%), and vancomycin (11.5%) were the most frequently prescribed antibiotics.

Use of antibiotics in ICUs of our hospital is associated with high rate of errors especially in the aspects of medical indication and dosage.