ABSTRACT
The aim of this study was to describe the antimicrobial prescription patterns of patients with hematological malignancies who developed febrile neutropenia [FN] at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital [SQUH] in Oman. This was a retrospective observational study covering a period of 3 years [January 2007-February 2010]. FN episodes were studied in patients with hematological malignancies in three different wards at SQUH. A total of 176 FN episodes were analyzed. Overall, 64% of the 107 patients studied experienced at least 2 episodes during the analysis period. Approximately, 69% of the febrile neutropenia episodes had severe neutropenia. The duration of neutropenia was less than 1 week in the majority of the episodes [57%]. The mean duration of treatment was approximately 7 days, with no significant difference between specialties or different types of malignancies. Only 34 [19%] episodes had positive cultures, and most of these were from blood samples [30 episodes, 88%]. The majority of isolates were gram-negative organisms [63%]. The initial empirical treatment included monotherapy [37%], dual therapy [60%] and triple therapy [3%]. This study demonstrates that there is a large variation in the antimicrobial treatment of FN episodes in patients with hematological malignancies at SQUH. All chosen drugs were within international guideline recommendations