[Evaluation of antibiotic prescription in a French university hospital]

The aim of this study was to evaluate antibiotic prescription in a French university hospital.

Our hospital participated in an international European Surveillance of Antimicrobial Consumption (ESAC) project study, including a longitudinal survey of monthly antibiotic use between 1998 and 2005, and a point prevalence study in 2006. All patients in the hospital on the day of survey were included in the study. Antibiotic treatments were assessed according to local antibiotic guidelines.

Between 1998 and 2005, antibiotic use increased from 551.9 to 628.5 defined daily doses per 1000 patient-days. This increase was linked to the increase of penicillin and fluoroquinolone consumption. In the point prevalence survey, 251 (27.0%) of the 930 included patients received one or several antibiotics for a total of 395 antibiotic prescriptions. Community-acquired infections were the first indication of treatment (41.8% of prescriptions), hospital-acquired infections accounted for 34.9% of prescriptions, surgical and medical antibiotic prophylaxis for 22.4%. The assessment of antibiotic prescriptions showed that 73.7% of them were in conformity with local recommendations.

This type of study is relevant to identify critical points of inadequate antibiotic use so as to suggest corrective measures to prescribers.