Peri-operative antibiotic usage during endourological surgery: A multi-institutional, national-level, cross-sectional...

Antibiotic use during endourological procedures is often discordant from the reported guidelines, despite the potential risks of antibiotic resistance, adverse effects, and health-care costs. A nationwide audit was conducted, with the support of the Urological Society of India, to ascertain the current antibiotic prescription practices for the endourological procedures and the reasons associated with them.

A multi-institutional, national-level, cross-sectional audit analyzing elective endourological procedures was performed. The data regarding the disease profile; risk factors for infectious complications; urine culture; pre-, per-, and post-operative antibiotic use; additional antibiotic use; and patient demographics were collected in a standardized pro forma. Reasons for prescribing antibiotics divergent from the guideline recommendations were also noted. Any infectious complication that necessitated the antibiotic use was also noted prospectively up to 1 month. All the data were entered into a single centralized and customized online portal on a real-time basis.

One thousand five hundred and thirty-eight cases were recruited from 20 hospitals. A single-dose prophylaxis was prescribed in only 319 (20.7%) of the cases, and the majority received a multi-day prophylaxis. A combination of two or more antibiotics was prescribed as the prophylaxis in 51% of the cases. One thousand three hundred and fifty-six (88.2%) cases were continued on a long-duration prophylaxis after the discharge, with 1191 (77.4%) receiving it for > 3 days. One thousand one hundred and sixty (75.4%) cases received a guideline-discordant prophylaxis solely on the basis of the surgeon's or institution's protocol, rather than any specific case based need. Ninety eight (6.4%) cases developed postoperative urinary tract infection.

Multi-dose, combination and post-discharge antibiotic prophylaxis for endourological surgeries is highly prevalent in India. This audit highlights the huge potential to reduce such guideline-discordant overuse of antibiotics during the endourological procedures.