[Analysis of antibiotics as a curative measure in four hospital units]

In order to analyse the methods of curative prescription of antibiotics in four units of hospitalization of the hospital Charles Nicolle of Tunis, a descriptive study of prescriptions was carried out during the first five months of year 2001. On the whole, 165 prescriptions delivered to patients were included in the study. The average age of the patients was 44 years, the sex ratio of 1.45 and the average duration of 15.1 days. Approximately two thirds of the initially probabilist prescriptions were not documented secondarily. Those secondarily documented (n = 51) were essentially related to nosocomial pneumonias and septicaemias (29 and 10 prescriptions). The two germs most frequently isolated during nosocomial pneumonias were Acinetobacter baumannii and, Pseudomonas aeruginosa (17 and 8 strains). Only imipenem, netilmicin and colistin remain active on A. baumannii. The bitherapy was the most used treatment (87.5%). It was generally an association beta-lactamin-aminosid (52.9%). The average cost of a documented prescription varied from 943,6 to 1184,9 TD (Tunisian Dinars) according as the prescription were secondarily documented or not.