In recent years, antimicrobial resistance has become increasingly common and represents serious public health problem. For the treatment of infections with multidrug-resistant microorganisms, last-line antimicrobial drugs are used. Colistin is one such drug, with a narrow therapeutic window. Optimal dosing of colistin has not yet been determined and its use in hospitals is increasing.
We performed a retrospective analysis of colistin use in the General Hospital Murska Sobota in years 2016 to 2021. We analysed indications for colistin use, doses and dosing intervals, their appropriateness, duration of therapy, the occurrence of adverse drug reactions, selected inflammatory parameters, treatment outcomes, and interventions by clinical pharmacists. We also checked how the prescribing trend changed over the years.
We included 93 patients in the study. Colistin treatment was most commonly prescribed to patients in the perioperative medicine department, intensive care unit. The most common indication for prescribing colistin was pneumonia (56/93 patients). The most common causative agents were Acinetobacter baumannii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Therapy with colistin was justified based on microbiological results in 73.9 % of all treatments. In 43 % of cases, the patient received a loading dose upon initiation of therapy. The most common maintenance dose was 3 mi.e./8h (39 patients) or 4.5 mi.e./12h (15 patients). The pharmacist corrected the dose on the antimicrobial reserve drug order form in 63 cases and also wrote a pharmacist's report for 35 orders. The pharmacist's correction was accepted by the physicians in 82.5 %. We estimated that acute kidney injury developed during therapy in 27 (33.8 %) patients. Treatment was successful in 37.6 % of patients, and we considered treatment to be unsuccessful in 32.2 % of cases, the outcome of treatment could not be evaluated in 30.1 % of cases. Patients with successful treatment were significantly younger, and fewer pharmacist interventions related to colistin treatment were observed in this group. There were no statistically significant differences between the groups in other parameters analysed. The use of colistin in the General Hospital of Murska Sobota is increasing from 2016 to 2021, especially in 2021, when the highest number of COVID-19 patients were treated.
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