SHORT RESEARCH REPORT Clinical pharmacists’ review of surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis in a tertiary hospital in Abu Dhabi Mohamed El Hassan • Asim Ahmed Elnour • Farah Hamad Farah • Abdulla Shehab • Naama M. Al Kalbani • Sahar Asim • Omer Abdulla Shehab • Rauda Abdulla Received: 11 July 2014 / Accepted: 26 November 2014 / Published online: 9 December 2014 Ó Koninklijke Nederlandse Maatschappij ter bevordering der Pharmacie 2014 Abstract Background There is a lack of evidence to sup- port standard of care and concordance with surgical anti- microbial prophylaxis (SAP) guidelines in our setting. There is an opportunity for clinical pharmacists to facilitate this process across all surgical disciplines. Objective To assess adherence of surgeons to SAP guidelines. Method This was a retrospective study of 250 patients who underwent surgery during 2012 in Mafraq Hospital, Abu Dhabi. We evaluated prescribing of SAP, antimicrobial selection, first-dose tim- ing, dose interval, treatment duration and adherence of sur- geons to local hospital guidelines. Results We reviewed 250 patients (193 were male and 57 were female, mean age 36 ± 1.2 years); 54 % had elective operations and 46 % underwent emergency surgery. Adherence to hospital guidelines was 32.1 %. Antimicrobial selection, timing of the first dose, dosage interval and treatment duration were concordant with the hospital guidelines in 26, 31 and 40.3 % of cases, respectively. Main barriers to adherence to hospital guidelines were lack of awareness and education. Conclu- sions The present study indicated poor adherence to the SAP guidelines. The timing of administration of SAP was not appropriate in two-thirds of the patients and more than half received more than three doses of SAP inappropriately. Continuing medical education should target antimicrobial prophylaxis (selection, timing and duration), clinical phar- macy antibiotic services and cyclic auditing. Keywords Adherence to protocol Á Antimicrobial surgical prophylaxis Á Hospital protocol Á Surgical site infection M. El Hassan Mafraq Hospital, Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA), Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates M. El Hassan Medical Biology Centre, School of Pharmacy, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK A. A. Elnour Al Ain Hospital, Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA), PO. 59262 Al Ain, United Arab Emirates A. A. Elnour Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, UAE University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates F. H. Farah College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Ajman University of Sciences and Technology, Ajman, United Arab Emirates A. Shehab (&) Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, UAE University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates e-mail: a.shehab@uaeu.ac.ae N. M. Al Kalbani Tawam Hospital, Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA), Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates S. Asim College of Dentistry, Ajman University of Sciences and Technology, Ajman, United Arab Emirates O. A. Shehab Internal Medicine Department, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, UAE University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates R. Abdulla College of Medicine and Health Sciences, UAE University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates 123 Int J Clin Pharm (2015) 37:18–22 DOI 10.1007/s11096-014-0045-4