A Study on Lower Respiratory Tract Infection in a Tertiary Care Hospital, Bangalore, India

Objective: To find out the antibiotics which are prescribed and preventive measures for lower respiratory tract infections in a tertiary care hospital. Methodology: A prospective observational study was conducted in a quaternary care hospital for a period of six months. All the necessary data was collected and recorded in a data collection and assessment form. Patient case notes, treatment charts/prescriptions, laboratory reports and interviews from the patients, patient representatives and healthcare professionals were the sources of data. The collected data was analyzed for lower respiratory tract infection in a tertiary care hospital prescribed. Result: This study is a hospital based prospective study carried out over a period of six months from September 2016 to February 2017 in a tertiary care hospital. A total of 150 patients were screened and included in the study, of which 82 patients were male (54.6%) and 68patients were female (45.3 %). We observed that majority of the patient population was in the age group of 0-10 years (21.3 %). 28.6% (n=43) were received with oral route of administration and 71.3% (n=107) were given by parenteral route of administration.68% (n=102) were having bronchitis. And 8.6% (n=13) with bronchiolitis and 23.3%(n=35) by pneumonia as lower respiratory tract infection. Majority of the study population were received with third generation cephalosporins that is ceftriaxone, 19.01% (n=106), followed by piperacillin 18.6%(n=108). Conclusion:  We observed that Frequency of drug administration was studied to understand the dosage regimen patterns among antibiotics. The present study had provided useful findings which can be used as evidence for the prescribing pattern and the use of the antimicrobial drug. The results of this survey revealed that there is the need for an antibiotic formulary or clinical guidelines. The Hospitals Drugs and Therapeutics committee can play an important role in this regard and also perform drug utilization studies and prescription reviews to improve drug use in general and management. The study strongly highlighted the need of patient education and counselling on use of antibiotics and concomitant drugs.