Investigating the prevalence of antibiotics prescription in the toxicology ward of a referral hospital in the North of Iran

Abstract

Antibiotic resistance of microorganisms is a serious problem in medicine. One of the most common reasons for this issue is the improper prescription of antibiotics by physicians. The purpose of the study was to investigate the prevalence of using antibiotics in the toxicology ward of Razi Hospital. In this retrospective descriptive cross-sectional study, 338 patients admitted to the toxicology ward of Razi hospital were enrolled from March 2018 until March 2019. A checklist of investigated factors including age, gender, fever, paraclinical findings, type of poisoning, and type of antibiotic prescribed was completed for all patients. About 52.1% of the participants were males and 47.9% were females. The mean age of participants was 37.07 ± 17.36 years. Antibiotics had been prescribed for 49 patients. The most common form of poisoning was benzodiazepines. Also, ceftriaxone was the most common antibiotic prescribed to the patients. Fever existed in 69.4% of the patients receiving antibiotics. The most common paraclinical finding was abnormal complete blood count (CBC) in patients (leukocytosis) which was seen in 83.7% of them. The antibiotics mostly had been prescribed in the first two days of hospitalization. In the present study, antibiotics were prescribed in the toxicology ward for only 14.5% of the poisoned patients. Considering that ceftriaxone has been the most commonly prescribed antibiotic, its use has to be based on clinical evidence based on the necessary indications according to scientifically substantiated sources.