Infection control is very important in burn care units, because burn wound infection is one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality among burn patients. Thus, the appropriate prescription of antibiotics can be helpful, but unreasonable prescription can have detrimental consequences, including greater expenses to patients and community alike. The aim of this study was to determine the effe...

OBJECTIVE Appropriate use of antibiotics in the management of hospitalised patients with COPD exacerbations is defined within the GOLD strategy. This paper analyses the factors associated with antibiotic prescribing in patients to better understand how prescribing may be improved. METHODS The European COPD audit was a study of clinical care in 384 hospitals from 13 European countries between ...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the association between diagnostic labeling of respiratory tract infections (RTIs) and antibiotic prescription rates in family practice. DESIGN Descriptive analysis of outpatient chart review supplemented by interviews with physicians. Charts of patients attending 73 general practitioners were reviewed between October 1997 and February 1998. Two days of practice were eva...

OBJECTIVES To assess the use of prophylactic antibiotics for cesarean section, and to identify factors associated with a doctor's intraoperative prescription. DESIGN A hospital-based, cross-sectional study. STUDY PARTICIPANTS All 967 medical records of women undergoing cesarean section from January 1998 to February 1999 in a university hospital, Southern Thailand. MAIN MEASURES Independen...

Background Antibiotics are among those drugs prescribed abundantly in hospitals due to their high efficiency. However, excessive, non-logical and unnecessary use of antibiotics regardless of physicians' recommendations is considered as a challenge. Objectives The aim of this study was to explain family physicians' beliefs about antibiotic prescription in Ahvaz. Methods This study is part of...

Increasing use of antibiotics and rising levels of bacterial resistance to antibiotics are a challenge to global health and development. Successful initiatives for containing the problem need to be communicated and disseminated. In Sweden, a rapid spread of resistant pneumococci in the southern part of the country triggered the formation of the Swedish strategic programme against antibiotic res...

BACKGROUND Rapid identification of positive blood cultures is important for initiation of optimal treatment in septic patients. Effects of automated, microarray-based rapid identification systems on antibiotic prescription against community-onset bacteremia (COB) remain unclear. METHODS We prospectively enrolled 177 patients with 185 COB episodes (occurring within 72 h of admission) over 17 m...

Unnecessary use of antibiotics plays an important role in increasing bacterial resistance and medical costs as well as in the risk of drug-related adverse events [1]. The most frequent indication for antibiotic prescription in Europe is respiratory tract infections (RTI) [2]. Clinical signs and symptoms are unreliable for distinguishing viral from bacterial RTI [3]. Diagnostic uncertainty incre...

Since the prescription of antibiotics in the hospital setting is often empiric, particularly in the critically ill, and therefore fraught with potential error, we analysed the use of antibiotic agents in Swedish intensive care units (ICUs). We examined indications for antibiotic treatment, agents and dosage prescribed among 393 patients admitted to 23 ICUs at 7 tertiary care centres, 11 seconda...

OBJECTIVES We examined 2 birth cohort effects on antibiotic prescribing during the first year of life (henceforth, infancy) in Denmark: (1) the birth season effect on timing and overall occurrence of antibiotic prescribing, and (2) the birth year effect amid emerging nationwide pneumococcal vaccination programs and changing prescribing guidelines. METHODS We linked data for all live births in...