title: [The use of cefotaxime on patients admitted to the internal medicine service of a general hospital. An analysis from the viewpoint of health economics].
abstract: Cefotaxime is a widely employed antibiotic in hospital practice, leading to an important economical cost. We analyse the adequacy of the indications of cefotaxime in our Internal Medicine Unit along a two month period. The records of the 54 patients treated with cefotaxime along a two month period were retrospectively reviewed to establish the adequacy of the prescriptions by checking them with a list of indications based on widely used bibliographical sources. Cefotaxime prescription was considered inadequate because of its inefficiency in 15 out of the 54 patients studied (28%). They were all patients admitted because of bronchitic relapses of chronic obstructive lung disease ("COLD") without radiological evidence of pneumonic consolidation. We calculate that using a more efficient antibiotic alternative could lead to a decrease of a 3.6 to 7.53% in the total pharmaceutical expenses of our unit along the study period. We conclude that the unnecessary routine use of cefotaxime may lead to an avoidable important increase in sanitary costs.
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Medicina Interna, Hospital General de Segovia.
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Moreno Palomares
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fernández Ordóñez
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Reverte Cejudo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002439:Cefotaxime / Q000191:economics* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002511:Cephalosporins / Q000191:economics* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006748:Hospital Departments / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006769:Hospitals, General / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013030:Spain
chemical_list: D002511:Cephalosporins; D002439:Cefotaxime