Abstract

DUARTE BUSQUET, Darien; FITERRE LANCIS, Irene  and  CALERO RICARDO, Jorge Luis. Prescription of antimicrobials in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Rev Cubana Farm [online]. 2014, vol.48, n.3, pp.423-431. ISSN 0034-7515.

Objective: to characterize the prescription of antimicrobials in patients with decompensated chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Methods: descriptive and cross-sectional study that covered 131 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, who were prescribed some kind of antimicrobials in the internal medicine wards of "Joaquin Albarran" clinical and surgical hospital located in Havana, Cuba in the period of May 2011 through April 2012. The main causes of exacerbation were identified, the antimicrobial prescription was described and the association of severe decompensation and length of stay at hospital was determined. The statistical SPSS software analyzed the results. Results: sixty five percent of patients presented with infectious decompensation. Antimicrobial prescription was mostly empirical in 92 % of cases and inadequate in 49 %. It was proven that the association of decompensation severity and antimicrobial prescription was statistically significant. Conclusions: antimicrobials were inadequately prescribed in five out of ten patients diagnosed with decompensated chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, mostly in those cases without proven positive diagnosis of respiratory infection. As the decompensation severity decreases, the incidence of inadequate prescription increases.

Keywords : chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; antimicrobial prescription.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )