Rational Use of Vancomycin Among Inpatients in Shahid Chamran Hospital; A Cross-Sectional Study

The rational use of drugs is one of the main elements of achieving the best pharmacotherapy method. By contrast, the irrational use of drugs imposes many problems on healthcare systems worldwide. Since the irrational and inappropriate prescription of antibiotics is one of the main underlying factors of global threat of increased antibiotic resistance, it is of utmost importance to evaluate the rational use of widely used antibiotics in the healthcare system. Vancomycin is used for infections caused by gram-positive bacteria, including Methicillin-resistant staphylococci and enterococci, but the inappropriate use of this drug has led to the emergence of Vancomycin-resistant strains. The purpose of this study was to investigate the manner of Vancomycin prescription in Chamran Hospital of Isfahan.This cross-sectional study was conducted on 402 patients admitted to Shahid Dr. Chamran Heart Hospital of Isfahan in the period of 6 months (from September 1, 2021 to Feburary 1, 2022). The information of these patients was recorded through a checklist, including the demographic information of the patient, the drugs used, the reason for hospitalization, the number of days of hospitalization, the reason for vancomycin prescription and its starting time, and other information. Then, the matching or non-matching of drug prescription was investigated based on the diagnosed disease.The Blood culture type with a frequency of 6.2% and the Pericardia culture type with a frequency of 0.2% had the highest and lowest frequency in the studied subjects, respectively. 36.8% of those who used Vancomycin also used Ceftriaxone. 81.8% of those who used vancomycin used it for prophylaxis. The frequency of rational prescription in people with endocarditis indication was significantly higher than people without this indication. Also, the frequency of rational and irrational prescription in prophylaxis indication is higher than other indications. The frequency of prescribing the correct dose of medicine was 87.6%.