Drug use evaluation of ceftriaxone in medical ward of Dessie Referral Hospital, North East Ethiopia

Background: Assessment of antimicrobial use can be performed by evaluating their use. Drug use evaluation is a performance improvement method that focuses on evaluation and improvement of drug use processes to achieve optimal patient outcomes. The objective of this study was to evaluate the rational use of ceftriaxone in Medical ward of Dessie referral Hospital, Dessie-Ethiopia. Methods: Retrospective systematic study was used to assess rational use of ceftriaxone. The study was conducted by reviewing medication records of 316 patients, who received ceftriaxone during hospitalization at Medical ward of Dessie referral Hospital from December 30, 2011 to January, 2013. A systematic sampling method was used to select inpatient prescriptions in this ward with ceftriaxone and patient cards were located based on the medical record number on the prescription papers. Data was collected by using structured format and evaluated against WHO criteria for drug use evaluation as per standard treatment guideline of Ethiopia. Results: Most patients were dosed as 2 g/day (79.4%). The duration of therapy was found to be high in the range 2-7 days (51.69%). Ceftriaxone was mainly used as pneumonia treatment (38.8%). Maintenance fluids were the most commonly co-administered medications with a frequency of 62.16%. The use of ceftriaxone was appropriate only in 170 cases (55.8%) for the justification of use. Most of inappropriate uses were seen in terms of duration during treatment of pneumonia followed by frequency for the treatment of meningitis. Consistency of prescriber to the national standard treatment guideline was found to be low. Conclusions: To improve rational use and prevent the development of resistance; prescribers should adhere to the national standard treatment guideline. Intensification of short term trainings and antibiotic control systems are some of the possible solutions the hospital has to do.ceftriaxone therapy does not meet the current STG of Ethiopia. [Int J Basic Clin Pharmacol 2013; 2(6.000): 711-717]