The effect of an antibiotic stewardship program on tigecycline use in a Tertiary Care Hospital, an intervention study

A drug-oriented antibiotic stewardship intervention targeting tigecycline utilization was launched at Makassed General Hospital, Beirut, Lebanon, in 2016 as a part of a comprehensive Antibiotic Stewardship Program (ASP). In this study, we evaluated the effect of this intervention on changing tigecycline prescription behavior in different types of infections, patient outcome and mortality, along with tigecycline drug use density, when compared to an earlier period before the initiation of ASP. This is a retrospective chart review of all adult inpatients who received tigecycline for more than 72 h between Jan-2012 and Dec-2013 [period (P) 1 before ASP] and between Oct-2016 and Dec-2018 [period (P) 2 during ASP]. Tigecycline was administered to 153 patients during P1 and 116 patients during P2. The proportion of patients suffering from cancer, those requiring mechanical ventilation, and those with hemodynamic failure was significantly reduced between P1 and P2. The proportion of patients who received tigecycline for FDA-approved indications increased from 19% during P1 to 78% during P2 (P