Patterns of Antimicrobial Therapy for Sore Throat in A Teaching Hospital of India
Tamilisetti Vidya Sagar1
, Sanjay Kumar*1, Kagita Venkata Durga Navyamani2 and Shantilata Patnaik31Department of Pharmacology, GSL Medical College, Rajahmundry, India.
2Department of ENT, Rangaraya medical College, Kakinada, India.
3Department of Pharmacology, IMS and SUM Hospital, SOA University, Bhubaneswar, India.
Corresponding Author E-mail: sanjaykumarimssum@gmail.com
Abstract: Sore throat is a common presentation in outdoor patient setting, mostcases of sore throat are viral in aetiology and do not require antibiotics, it is a common practice to prescribe antibiotics to all patients presenting with sore throat without identifying aetiology, purpose of this study was to determine antimicrobial prescription pattern in patients with acute sore throat.This is a descriptive and observational study, observed participants without providing any interventions, after fulfilling inclusion and exclusion criteria, patients were enrolled into study and informed written consent was obtained from all patients after a detailed explanation prior to enrolment, data was obtained from medical records, analysed descriptively and Modified Centor scoring system was used to determine appropriateness of antibiotics, results depicted in the form of tables and figures. A total of 90 patients, who presented with sore throat were enrolled for the study. Inflammation of posterior pharyngeal wall was observed in 77% patients, while exudate was seen in 50%, tonsils were enlarged in 11% cases and cervical lymphadenopathy was present in 1.1%. Analysis of prescriptions showed that beta lactams,were widely prescribed antibiotics, followed by macrolides,followed by quinolones and aminoglycosides and 50% patients received antibacterial monotherapy, whereas 50% were on multiple antibacterial drug therapy, prescribing multiple antimicrobials without any culture sensitivity was encountered in this study and there were less generic drugs prescribed. There is a need of educational programmes in order to bring rational use of antibiotics and empirical prescription of antibiotics for sore throat in most cases is unjustified and the practice must be discouraged.
Keywords: Antibiotics; Beta Lactams; Centor Score; Generic Drugs; Inappropriate Prescribing Back to TOC