Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 Department of Pharmacy Practice, College of Pharmacy, SRIPMS, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
2 Department of Pulmonology, Sri Ramakrishna Hospital, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
Abstract
Objective: The purpose of this study is to analyze the antibiotic sensitivity pattern of
microorganisms, to study the antibiotic usage pattern, and to conduct a cost‑effectiveness
analysis (CEA) for the antibiotics prescribed in a tertiary care teaching hospital in south India.
Methods: This prospective study was carried out in the General Medicine and Pulmonology
departments of the hospital for a period of 6 months. The study was carried out in three
phases: A prospective analysis to check the sensitivity pattern of microorganisms to various
antibiotics, data extraction and determining the cost of antibiotics and finally evaluation of
the sensitivity pattern of microorganisms and the antibiotic usage. A total of 796 documented
records were analyzed.
Findings: It was found that Escherichia coli was the major organism identified in 36.4% of
the isolated specimens, followed by Klebsiella sp. (18.9%), Streptococcus pneumoniae (15.8%),
Staphylococcus aureus (12.4%), and Pseudomonas (9.3%). The sensitivity pattern data of the
prospective study revealed that E.coli was highly sensitive to Amikacin (99.3%), Klebsiella to
Amikacin (93.8%), Pseudomonas to Meropenem (97.6%), and S. pneumoniae to Ofloxacin (93.8%).
In the prescribing pattern study, it was found that the most common disease (21.2%) was
found to be lower respiratory tract infection in 51 patients. Cephalosporins(73%), in particular
Ceftriaxone (63.5%) was highly prescribed, followed by fluoroquinolones(53.9%). In the CEA,
it was revealed that Ceftriaxone was the cost‑effective antibiotic with a cost‑effectiveness
ratio (CER) of 78.27 compared to Levofloxacin, which had a CER of 95.13.
Conclusion: Continuous surveillance of susceptibility testing is necessary for cost‑effective
customization of empiric antibiotic therapy. Furthermore, reliable statistics on antibiotic
resistance and policies should be made available.
Keywords
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