Prescribing practices of antimicrobial prophylaxis in older patients in the surgical wards

Background: appropriate prescribing of antimicrobial prophylaxis (AP) is a main strategy of the antimicrobial stewardship programme. Aim: to investigate the prescribing practices of antimicrobial prophylaxis and adherence to recommended protocols in older patients in the surgical wards at a 600-bed teaching hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan. Method: researchers selected 240 surgical procedures retrospectively for patients aged 65 years and older admitted to four surgical specialties (abdominal, orthopaedic, urological and neurosurgery) during 1 year. The different parameters of antimicrobial prescription were compared with international clinical practice guidelines. Findings: There were more ‘clean’ surgical wound procedures (n=104; 43.3%) than ‘clean contaminated’ (n=97; 40.4%) and most of these were elective surgical procedures (n=226; 94%). The indication, selection, route, dose, and timing of antimicrobial were found to have adhered with the standard guidelines in 89.6%, 32.5%, 100%, 100% and 55.3% of cases, respectively (optimal value 100%). A statistically significant difference was observed between antimicrobial practices and surgical procedures (P< 0.001). The commonly prescribed antimicrobials were ceftriaxone followed by cefazolin. Conclusion: about 89% of participants who underwent surgical procedures received antimicrobials. The selection of therapeutic agent, the timing and use of broad-spectrum antimicrobial were the common problems in our setting.