Evolution of Antimicrobial Use in Covid-19 Patients

ABSTRACT

Background and Importance Antimicrobial prescribing prevalence in COVID-19 patients is estimated to be around 75%, whereas bacterial coinfection prevalence is estimated to be less than 10%. This data shows the unnecessary use of antibiotics. Aim and Objectives To compare the evolution of antimicrobial consumption in COVID-19 patients between the beginning of the pandemic and the third COVID-19 wave in our hospital. Material and Methods Observational retrospective study conducted in a tertiary care hospital during March to June 2020 and May to August 2021 in COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (CICU) and COVID-19 medical ward (CMW) patients. We extracted antimicrobial consumption data from the Pharmacy database (Silicon) and bed-days data from Admission Service. We standardised antimicrobial consumption to defined daily doses (DDD)/100 bed-days. The descriptive analysis was performed with SPSS. We conducted a normality, an independence and a correlation test. Results An 8% decrease in global antimicrobial use was observed. However, we found a 30% decrease in CMW, and a 39% increase in CICU. The antibiotic use in the two periods showed a significance correlation (p<0,001). Conclusion and Relevance * There is a light decrease of antimicrobial prescriptions in all COVID-19 patients. * There is an important decrease in antimicrobial use in CMW and a considerable increase in CICU. * These results suggest the need for more antimicrobial stewardship programmes in CICU. (Table Presented).