Trends in Prescribing Antimicrobials in an ENT Outpatient Department of a Tertiary Care Hospital for Upper Respiratory Tract Infections

Background: The drug utilization study identifies the problems that arise from drug usage in healthcare delivery system and highlights the current approaches to the rational use of drugs. Objective: To study the trends in prescribing antimicrobials in an ENT outpatient department (OPD) of a tertiary care hospital for upper respiratory tract infections (URTI). Materials and method: An observational study was conducted in the OPD of ENT at Bapuji Hospital, Davangere, Karnataka, India from May to July 2011. Prescriptions of all patients were collected; relevant information entered in a preformed proforma and analyzed using the drug utilization 90% [(DU-90%)] method. The results were presented in percentages and analyzed using DU-90% method. Result: A total of 300 prescriptions were analyzed. The common cases for which antimicrobials prescribed were infections like pharyngitis, acute suppurative otitis media (ASOM), chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM), tonsillitis, laryngitis. It was noted that 142 patients (47.33%) received amoxicillin alone, 52 patients (17.33%) received combination of amoxicillin and clavulanic acid, 43 patients (14.33%) received cefixime, 40 patients (13.33%) received cefuroxime and 23 patients (7.66%) received azithromycin, levofloxacin and other antimicrobials. Conclusion: The present study showed that among the various antimicrobials used, only four antimicrobials figured in DU-90% segment which were amoxicillin, combination of amoxicillin and clavulanic acid and cephalosporins like cefixime and cefuroxime. Though azithromycin and levofloxacin are also frequently used drugs in upper respiratory tract infections, in this study they did not figure in the DU-90% segment.