title: Antimicrobial agent prescription patterns for chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia in patients with hematological malignancies at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital, Oman.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to describe the antimicrobial prescription patterns of patients with hematological malignancies who developed febrile neutropenia (FN) at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital (SQUH) in Oman.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a retrospective observational study covering a period of 3 years (January 2007-February 2010). FN episodes were studied in patients with hematological malignancies in three different wards at SQUH.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 176 FN episodes were analyzed. Overall, 64% of the 107 patients studied experienced at least 2 episodes during the analysis period. Approximately, 69% of the febrile neutropenia episodes had severe neutropenia. The duration of neutropenia was less than 1 week in the majority of the episodes (57%). The mean duration of treatment was approximately 7 days, with no significant difference between specialties or different types of malignancies. Only 34 (19%) episodes had positive cultures, and most of these were from blood samples (30 episodes, 88%). The majority of isolates were gram-negative organisms (63%). The initial empirical treatment included monotherapy (37%), dual therapy (60%) and triple therapy (3%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study demonstrates that there is a large variation in the antimicrobial treatment of FN episodes in patients with hematological malignancies at SQUH. All chosen drugs were within international guideline recommendations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacy, College of Medicine & Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman. mme51@squ.edu.om
authors.forename: K A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Al Balushi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Balkhair
authors.forename: B H
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Ali
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Al Rawas
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005260:Female; D005334:Fever / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000382:microbiology; D019337:Hematologic Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D009503:Neutropenia / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000382:microbiology; D009850:Oman; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013210:Staphylococcus / Q000302:isolation & purification; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents