Point prevalence study of antimicrobial usage in acute care hospitals in the Slovak Republic

Antimicrobial use and resultant resistance is still increasing worldwide. Close monitoring and strict implementation of policies are important to tackle this issue.

To assess the use of antimicrobials in acute care hospitals in the Slovak Republic.

Antimicrobial use was monitored as part of a point prevalence survey (PPS) of healthcare-associated infections. Surveillance was performed in 40 hospitals in the Slovak Republic according to the standardized methodology developed by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Data were collected according to a standard protocol.

In total, 8397 patients in 40 Slovak hospitals were surveyed. Of these, 30.7% were receiving antibiotics at the time of the survey. In 630 cases, patients were receiving more than one antimicrobial agent. The prevalence of antimicrobial use was highest in intensive care units (54.3%). Antimicrobials were prescribed most frequently for treatment of community-acquired infections (48.1%) and healthcare-associated infections (11.4%). Surgical prophylaxis was the indication for 22.2% of all prescribed antimicrobials, and exceeded 24h in 81.5% of cases. The antimicrobials used most often were fluoroquinolones (20.9%), especially for non-surgical prophylaxis (26.8%) and treatment (21.9%). The antimicrobials prescribed most frequently for surgical prophylaxis were first-generation cephalosporins (23.0%), fluoroquinolones (14.7%) and second-generation cephalosporins (11.4%). The use of antimicrobials was higher in patients with invasive medical devices.

This study found excessive use of broad-spectrum antibiotics, prolonged surgical prophylaxis, frequent use of parenteral antibiotics and inadequate documentation of the indication for prescription. These findings present opportunities for improving the management of antimicrobials in Slovak hospitals.