Pattern of Peri-Operative Antibiotic Use among Surgical Patients in a Regional Referral and Teaching Hospital in Uganda

Background: Prolonged surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis (SAP) to prevent surgical site infection (SSI) is generally discouraged after completion of surgery. However, little is known about the pattern of peri-operative antibiotic use in resource-limited settings. We aimed to describe its use at a typical government hospital in Uganda. Methods: A study was originally conducted in a rural Ugandan regional referral and teaching hospital in 2014 and 2015 to improve hand hygiene practice and measure its impact on health-care–associated infections including SSI (WardGel study). This is a secondary analysis of the data from the WardGel study to assess the frequency of peri-operative antibiotic use among surgical patients. Results: Of 3,627 patients enrolled into the original study, 960 (26.5%) underwent surgery at the hospital and 907 patients (94.5%) received antibiotic agents during hospitalization. Of these, 880 patients (97.0%, of 907 patients) received antibiotic agents on the day of surgery. A combination of ceftriaxone and metronidazole was the most common regimen (609/907 patients, 67.1%). Thirty-six of 907 patients (4.0%) started and completed their antibiotic agents on the day of surgery. The mean length of antibiotic use during hospitalization was 3.5 days (standard deviation, 3.3). After adjusting for covariates, linear regression analysis showed an extra 1.9 days of antibiotic use post-operatively (95% confidence interval = 1.7–2.3). During the total 4,960 inpatient-days for those having surgery, there were 6,503 days of therapy (DOTs) of antibiotic agents and 1,649 antibiotic-free days (AFDs). Conclusions: Most patients received prolonged antibiotic therapy after surgery. Antimicrobial stewardship for SAP can play a major role in combating antimicrobial resistance in resource-limited settings.