Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate antibiotic prescription in a French university hospital.
Design: Our hospital participated in an international European Surveillance of Antimicrobial Consumption (ESAC) project study, including a longitudinal survey of monthly antibiotic use between 1998 and 2005, and a point prevalence study in 2006. All patients in the hospital on the day of survey were included in the study. Antibiotic treatments were assessed according to local antibiotic guidelines.
Results: Between 1998 and 2005, antibiotic use increased from 551.9 to 628.5 defined daily doses per 1000 patient-days. This increase was linked to the increase of penicillin and fluoroquinolone consumption. In the point prevalence survey, 251 (27.0%) of the 930 included patients received one or several antibiotics for a total of 395 antibiotic prescriptions. Community-acquired infections were the first indication of treatment (41.8% of prescriptions), hospital-acquired infections accounted for 34.9% of prescriptions, surgical and medical antibiotic prophylaxis for 22.4%. The assessment of antibiotic prescriptions showed that 73.7% of them were in conformity with local recommendations.
Conclusions: This type of study is relevant to identify critical points of inadequate antibiotic use so as to suggest corrective measures to prescribers.