Antibiotic use density in trauma intensive care unit at a tertiary care hospital in Western Rajasthan

Relevance. The excessive use of antibiotics is a public health issue that has hampered poor and middle-income nations and is linked to rising healthcare expenses and antimicrobial resistance, which is regarded as an important risk to world health. In addition, resistance raises expenses, prolongs hospital stays for patients, and causes mortality. Defined daily dose (DDD) represents the average adult daily maintenance dose of a specific drug applied according to its primary indication. Antibiotic use density is expressed as defined daily doses/ 100 patient-days. Aim. The aim of this study is to evaluate the pattern of usage of antibiotics and to find out antibiotic use density in trauma intensive care unit (ICU). Materials and Methods. In this prospective observational study prescription data of 100 consecutive patients at admission into the trauma ICU was audited. Patients of all age of either gender admitted in the trauma ICU during the study period, which have been prescribed with antibiotics. The study was conducted over a period of eight months from August 2022 March 2023. During this period, all the included patients were followed up for their entire duration of stay in trauma ICU. Results and Discussion. The prescriptions of 100 consecutive patients admitted into the ICU were analyzed. On analyzing comorbidities it was noted that 79% were affected with contusions in brain/ intracerebral hemorrhage/ subdural hematoma followed by 5% with pnumothorax. According to DDD/100 bed days in our study piperacillin+tazobactam (10.64), cefoperazone+sulbactam (5.21), amikacin (7.5), vancomycin (3.2) and linezolid (3.2) were most consumed drugs in trauma ICU patients. Conclusion. Present study results conclude that overuse of antibiotics can cause antibiotic resistance, increased duration of stay in hospitals and reason of mortality.