TY - JOUR A2 - Girardis, Massimo AU - Trejnowska, Ewa AU - Deptuła, Aleksander AU - Tarczyńska-Słomian, Magda AU - Knapik, Piotr AU - Jankowski, Miłosz AU - Misiewska-Kaczur, Agnieszka AU - Tamowicz, Barbara AU - Śmiechowicz, Jakub AU - Antończyk, Remigiusz AU - Armatowicz, Paul AU - Sułkowski, Wiktor AU - Durek, Grażyna PY - 2018 DA - 2018/08/28 TI - Surveillance of Antibiotic Prescribing in Intensive Care Units in Poland SP - 5670238 VL - 2018 AB - Antibiotic use and microbial resistance in health care-associated infections are increasing globally and causing health care problems. Intensive Care Units (ICUs) represent the heaviest antibiotic burden within hospitals, and sepsis is the second noncardiac cause of mortality in ICUs. Optimizing appropriate antibiotic treatment in the management of the critically ill in ICUs became a major challenge for intensivists. We performed a surveillance study on the antibiotic consumption in 108 Polish ICUs. We determined which classes of antibiotics were most commonly consumed and whether they affected the length of ICU stay and the size and category of the hospital. A total of 292.389 defined daily doses (DDD) and 192.167 patient-days (pd) were identified. Antibiotic consumption ranged from 620 to 3960 DDD/1000 pd. The main antibiotic classes accounted for 59.6% of the total antibiotic consumption and included carbapenems (17.8%), quinolones (14%), cephalosporins (13.7%), penicillins (11.9%), and macrolides (2.2%), respectively, whereas the other antibiotic classes accounted for the remainder (40.4%) and included antifungals (34%), imidazoles (20%), aminoglycosides (18%), glycopeptides (15%), and polymyxins (6%). The most consumed antibiotic classes in Polish ICUs were carbapenems, quinolones, and cephalosporins, respectively. There was no correlation between antibiotic consumption in DDD/1000 patient-days, mean length of ICU stay, size of the hospital, size of the ICU, or the total amount of patient-days. It is crucial that surveillance systems are in place to guide empiric antibiotic treatment and to estimate the burden of resistance. Appropriate use of antibiotics in the ICU should be an important public health care issue. SN - 1712-9532 UR - https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/5670238 DO - 10.1155/2018/5670238 JF - Canadian Journal of Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology PB - Hindawi KW - ER -