International Journal of Basic & Clinical Pharmacology | October 2020 | Vol 9 | Issue 10 Page 1513 International Journal of Basic & Clinical Pharmacology Ramalingam V et al. Int J Basic Clin Pharmacol. 2020 Oct;9(10):1513-1519 http://www.ijbcp.com pISSN 2319-2003 | eISSN 2279-0780 Original Research Article A prospective observational study on prescribing pattern of antimicrobial agents in the post-operative general surgery ward of a tertiary care teaching hospital Velvizhy Ramalingam, Johan Pandian J.* INTRODUCTION Infection of a wound is defined as an invasion of organisms through tissues following a breakdown of local and systemic host defences. Major wound infection occurs when a wound discharges pus and need a secondary procedure for adequate drainage which may be associated with systemic signs resulting prolongation of hospitalization, Minor wound infection presents with discharge of pus or serous fluid without excessive discomfort or systemic signs. 1 Wound infection is the most usual troublesome disorder of wound healing. From the time when surgery was pioneered as a treatment modality, post-operative wound infection has been a problem. Introduction of antiseptics is considered to be an important milestone for performing surgeries in many conditions that were previously Department of Pharmacology, Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, Pondicherry, India Received: 08 May 2020 Revised: 03 September 2020 Accepted: 04 September 2020 *Correspondence: Dr. Johan Pandian J, Email: johanpandian@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2319-2003.ijbcp20204088 ABSTRACT Background: This prospective observational study was done to know the current prescription trend of antimicrobial agents in the post-operative ward. To evaluate the current pattern of antimicrobial agents in the post-operative surgical cases of a tertiary care teaching hospital. Methods: The study was carried out in collaboration with the Department of General Surgery and Department of Pharmacology during April 2013 to March 2014. All parameters like demographic data, antimicrobials agents prescribed by surgeons, dose, frequency, duration, route, formulation, brand or generic drugs, adverse events were collected in the specially structured case proforma. Descriptive statistics was applied using SPSS version 17.0. Results: During the study period, 513 patient case records were analysed in which males are higher than females. A total of 816 drugs were used in 484 patients during the study period. 162 were on a single drug, 190 were on two drugs, 42 were on three drugs and 90 were on fixed dose combination. Brand name of the drugs and parenteral route of administration were preferred in the study. Cephalosporins (52.32%) and metronidazole (34.38%) were the most commonly prescribed group of antimicrobials followed by penicillin (0.9%), aminoglycosides (6.58%), quinolones (5.23%), macrolides (0.45%) and tetracycline (0.14%). Totally 135 (27.89%) patients received drugs which are not included in the essential medicine list of WHO and 112 (23.14%) patients received drugs which are not from national EML. Conclusions: The maximum prescribed antimicrobial agent in the post-operative ward was third generation cephalosporins. Keywords: Prescription, Cephalosporins, Aminoglycosides, Quinolones