The cost of antimicrobials for the treatment of nosocomial infections

• Main Authors: Serpanich N., Sermpanich A., Kasempitakpong B.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3502482; http://cmuir.cmu.ac.th/handle/6653943832/3473
• Institution: Chiang Mai University

A study on 5,647 patients discharged from the departments of surgery, obstetrics-gynaecology, medicine, paediatrics and orthopaedics, Chiang Mai Hospital was done from October-December 1990. There were 397 patients who were complicated by nosocomial infections (N.I.), an incidence rate of 7.03 per cent. Urinary tract was the most common site of infection (41.3%) followed by surgical wound (38.9%) and respiratory tract (12.7%) respectively. The most commonly prescribed antimicrobials in decreasing frequencies were: gentamicin (41.6%), amikacin (32.2%), amoxicillin (23.2%), ampicillin, benzyl penicillin, norfloxacin (14.4% each). The cost for cephalosporins, and quinolones, was 633,881 and 429,394 baht respectively. The total sum spent on antimicrobials for these 397 cases was 1,911,104 baht, or 4,813 baht (192.5 U.S. dollars) for one case of N.I..