Adherence of surgeons to antimicrobial prophylaxis guidelines in a tertiary general hospital in a rapidly developing country.
Objectives. To assess the standard practice of care of surgeons regarding surgical antibiotic prophylaxis, to identify gaps, and to set recommendations. Methods. A retrospective analysis of data obtained from different surgical units in a single center in Qatar over a 3-month period in 2012. A total of 101 patients who underwent surgery and followed regimes for surgical prophylaxis as per hospital guidelines were included in the study. Results. The overall use of antibiotic was 89%, whereas the current practice did not match the recommended hospital protocols in 53.5% of cases. Prolonged antibiotics use (59.3%) was the commonest reason for nonadherence followed by the use of an alternative antibiotic to that recommended in the protocol (31.5%) and no prophylaxis was used in 9.2% of cases. The rate of compliance was significantly higher among clean surgery than clean contaminated group (P = 0.03). Forty-four percent of clean and 65% of clean-contaminated procedures showed noncompliance with the recommended surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis hospital guidelines. Conclusion. Lack of adherence to hospital protocols is not uncommon. This finding remains a challenge to encourage clinicians to follow hospital guidelines appropriately and to consistently apply the surgical antibiotic prophylaxis. The role of clinical pharmacist may facilitate this process across all surgical disciplines.
Section of Trauma Surgery, Department of Surgery, Hamad General Hospital (HGH), P.O. Box 3050, Doha, Qatar.
Ahmed
A
Abdel-Aziz
Clinical Research, Section of Trauma Surgery, Hamad General Hospital (HGH), P.O. Box 3050, Doha, Qatar ; Clinical Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical School, P.O. Box 24144, Doha, Qatar ; Department of Medicine, Ahmed Maher Teaching Hospital, Cairo, Egypt.
Ayman
A
El-Menyar
Section of Trauma Surgery, Department of Surgery, Hamad General Hospital (HGH), P.O. Box 3050, Doha, Qatar.
Hassan
H
Al-Thani
Section of Trauma Surgery, Department of Surgery, Hamad General Hospital (HGH), P.O. Box 3050, Doha, Qatar.
Ahmad
A
Zarour
Section of Trauma Surgery, Department of Surgery, Hamad General Hospital (HGH), P.O. Box 3050, Doha, Qatar.
Ashok
A
Parchani
Clinical Research, Section of Trauma Surgery, Hamad General Hospital (HGH), P.O. Box 3050, Doha, Qatar.
Mohammad
M
Asim
Department of Pharmacy, Hamad General Hospital (HGH), P.O. Box 3050, Doha, Qatar.
Rasha
R
El-Enany
Department of Pharmacy, Hamad General Hospital (HGH), P.O. Box 3050, Doha, Qatar.
Haleema
H
Al-Tamimi
Section of Trauma Surgery, Department of Surgery, Hamad General Hospital (HGH), P.O. Box 3050, Doha, Qatar ; Department of Surgery, University of Arizona, P.O. Box 245005, Tucson, AZ, USA.
Rifat
R
Latifi