Adherence to surgical antibiotic prophylaxis guidelines in an Indian tertiary care hospital

Abstract

Introduction: The surgical antibiotic prophylaxis guidelines are developed to provide surgeons with a standardised approach to the rational, safe and effective use of antimicrobial agents for the prevention of surgical-site infections based on international, national and local recommendations. However, despite the availability of these guidelines, the adherence to the set protocols is a challenge. This study was carried out to evaluate the adherence to presurgical antibiotic prophylaxis in a tertiary care hospital. Materials and Methods: The antibiotic audit was prospectively carried out for 29 months January 2014—May 2016 for randomly selected clean and clean-contaminated surgeries. Measurable parameters for each selected case were choice of antibiotic, timing of administration and duration. The results were statistically analysed (Minitab 17.0 software). Results: A total of 1549 surgeries were audited. Out of this, 1501 (96.9%) surgeries fulfilled the inclusion criteria and 76.8% were clean. Mean age of the patients was 42.9 ± 18 years with the majority being females 52.5%. The most commonly used antibiotics were amikacin 32.5%, cefuroxime 29.5% and cefazolin 22.9%. The three parameters tested for adherence showed individual compliance of 87.3% for appropriate selection of antibiotic, 85.3% for appropriate administration and 34.9% for appropriate duration of antibiotic, respectively. Overall adherence to presurgical antibiotic prophylaxis guidelines by the surgeons showed significant results (69.2%, P < 0.05). Conclusion: The present study highlights the adherence and challenges faced in transforming hospital-specific guidelines into practice. The adherence to SAP protocols by surgeons was found comparable with that of the developed countries. This is due to their involvement in the formulation of antibiotic guidelines.