Changes in the pattern of hospital intravenous antimicrobial use in Saudi Arabia, 2006-2008

Hospitals should measure antimicrobial use based on the WHO's recommended metric, the defined daily dose (DDD). There is no data on antimicrobial usage based on DDD in Saudi Arabia. Thus, this study evaluates the trend in antimicrobial consumption based on this concept.

Observational study in a general hospital in Saudi Arabia from 2006-2008.

We analyzed the use of intravenous systemic antibacterial agents (group J01 of the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical [ATC] classification and the classes of this group) that were administered to hospitalized patients by reviewing the data obtained from the pharmacy records. Antimicrobial consumption was calculated as the number of DDD per 100 bed-days.

Of the total parenteral antibiotics, ciprofloxacin was the most commonly used intravenous antibiotic (67.6%), followed by ceftriaxone (6%), cefazolin (5%), and imipenem-enzyme inhibitor (4.3%). The DDD per 100 patient-days usage of intravenous antimicrobial agents was as follows: J01MA02 ciprofloxacin (parenteral) 82.643, J01DD04 ceftriaxone 7.447, J01DB02 cefazolin 6.166, J01DH51 imipenem-enzyme inhibitor 5.234, J01MA12 levofloxacin 3.188, and J01XA01 vancomycin 2.97. Intravenous ciprofloxacin usage increased from 3.55 to 82.643 DDD/100 patient days.

The study showed that the most commonly used intravenous systemic antimicrobial agent was ciprofloxacin. Thus, strategies are needed to specifically target these agents for prescribing improvement.