Impact of antibiotic stewardship on perioperative antimicrobial prophylaxis

Antibiotic prophylaxis (AP) is useful to prevent antimicrobial overuse, misuse and abuse, as well against the occurrence of surgical site infections (SSIs). This study aimed to describe the implementation of a quality improvement intervention on AP for elective surgery, as informal interviews showed a lower than expected compliance with internal recommendations, and to evaluate intervention's effect in terms of main drug consumption.

A quality improvement intervention on all elective cases within 14 main surgical departments was performed. SQUIRE 2.0 guidelines were used in designing and reporting.

The intervention was implemented in an Italian Teaching Hospital 2 years after the adoption of internal evidence-based AP recommendations.

Professionals involved in elective surgery.

The intervention was structured into two phases: a survey was conducted during two non-consecutive weeks period (April-May 2013) to assess the adherence to the international guidelines in AP; survey's results were presented and discussed with all the surgical teams (December 2013-April 2014).

Impact on cefazolin consumption (in defined daily doses per 100 procedures).

Data of AP for 653 surgical procedures in terms of type, timing, duration, excess and defect were analyzed. An optimal AP rate resulted in 48.1% cases. Reduction in cefazolin use (-21.5%) and cost (-22.9%) was registered.

Though results cannot be generalized to all hospital populations, the implemented intervention is likely to improve AP consequently improving quality of care and reducing costs. Further studies are needed to evaluate specific outcomes such as rate of SSIs and antibiotic resistance.