POINT PREVALENCE SURVEY OF ANTIMICROBIAL CONSUMPTION IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL OF NORTH EAST INDIA

Objective: The study was conducted to quantify antimicrobial utilization and determine the patterns of antibiotic use in Indoor patients and ICUs of the hospital. Methods: The Point Prevalent Survey (PPS) was conducted in a core “National Antimicrobial Consumption Network site” as a part of the National Centre for Disease Control-WHO project “Point prevalence survey of antimicrobial consumption at healthcare facilities.” The study was conducted as per the “WHO Methodology for PPS on Antibiotic use in hospitals” in March, 2022. Altogether, 1396 eligible patients were admitted during the survey period, and 1109 patients were included in the survey. Data were collected using a predesigned and pretested questionnaire in separate hospital, ward and patient forms. Results: The prevalence of antibiotic use during the study was 79.44%. On an average, 1.39 antibiotics were in use per patient and only a minor fraction of (1.5%) patients received definitive therapy. Parenteral route of administration (92.72%) was mostly used for administration of antibiotics. The most common indication for antibiotic use was found to be surgical prophylaxis (30.66%). There were 154 antibiotic prescriptions in the 'Not Recommended' category. Double gram negative and double anaerobic cover accounted for 25% and 8.3% respectively of the total prescriptions. Conclusion: Empirical use of antibiotics is common and lack of utilisation of antimicrobial susceptibility testing services requires urgent interventions. Routine monitoring of antibiotic use is recommended to improve the current scenario of antimicrobial consumption.