Evaluation of antibiotic use in Medical intensive care units, department of internal medicine, Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine

Infections are common in intensive care units (ICUs) with increased risk of mortality and risk of infection increases as duration of hospitalization increases. In addition to this, emergence of pathogens resistant to antimicrobials before or during the course of intensive care unit stay further increases mortality risk. This situation complicates and even precludes infection treatment. One of the most significant causes of antibiotic resistance is unnecessary, inappropriate, prolonged and excessive use of antibiotics. Primary objective of our study is to evaluate the frequency of the antibiotic use, sufficiency of diagnostic cultures, appropriate use of empirical antibiotic treatment and antibiotic management in critically-ill patients prior to ICU admission and during the ICU course. The secondary objective is to evaluate the effect of antibiotic use and management on mortality. Our study was prospectively conducted in Hacettepe University Adult Hospital and Oncology Hospitals between the dates 01.09.2016 and 31.01.2017 by including all patients older than the age of 18 who were hospitalized in the 23-bed medical ICUs localized in 3 different physical areas. Of the patients, 70 were female (55.1%) and 57 were male (44.9%). Mean age (±SD) of the patients was 65.2±19.0 years. Of the patients, median APACHE II score was 21 (min-max:0-70), median ECOG score was 3 (min-max:0-4) and median SOFA score was 4 (min-max: 0-18). Of the 127 patients, 93 (73.2%) were screened for infection before hospitalization in the ICU. In ninety patients (70.9%) antibiotic treatment was initiated. In 74.2% of 93 patients, cultures were determined to be insufficient. When compared according to the antibiogram results, 31.2% of the initiated empirical antibiotic treatments were determined to be inappropriate. It was demonstrated that after hospitalization in ICU, antibiotic spectrum was narrowed in 2.2%, the spectrum was broadened in 21.2% and it remained the same in others. It was revealed that in the period before hospitalization in ICU, median duration of antibiotic use was 1 day but the total duration may reach up to 38 days. A reduction in the rate of antibiotic use was determined during the follow-up in the ICU (Day 1 85.8%, Day 4 82.2%, 1-4 weeks 76.1%; p<0.001). The rate of detection of an MDR (multi-drug resistant) pathogen was determined to be 3.4% and of an XDR (extensively drug resistant) pathogen was determined to be 9.2% in patients who received antibiotics on the first day of hospitalization in the ICU. The presence of an infection, antibiotic use before hospitalization in the ICU and broadening of the antibiotic spectrum on the first day of hospitalization in the ICU influence mortality in bivariate analyses. In multivariate analyses only APACHE II (HR 1.97 [95% confidence interval 1.06-3.66]) and SOFA (HR 1.12 [95% confidence interval 1.01-1.25]) scores were determined to influence the mortality. In conclusion, demonstration of the facts that frequency and duration of antibiotic use before hospitalization in the ICU were extremely high, cultures were insufficient and frequency of initiation of an inappropriate empirical antibiotic treatment was high highlight the need for establishing policies for infection and antibiotic management. Keywords: Intensive Care, antimicrobial resistance, antibiotic stewardship, infection management, mortality