Empirical use of antibiotics and adjustment of empirical antibiotic therapies in a university hospital: a prospective observational study

Table 3 Reasons for inadequacy of empirical and adjusted antibiotic therapies

Reason for inadequacy ^a	Number of patients	%
Empirical antibiotic therapies	539
Inadequate empirical therapy	121	100%
Spectrum too broad	29	24.0%
Inadequate duration	28	23.1%
Insufficient dosage	27	22.3%
Spectrum too narrow	22	18.2%
Wrong spectrum/inadequate use ^b	21	17.4%
Excessive dosage	3	2.5%
Adjusted antibiotic therapies	168
Inadequate adjusted therapy	46	100%
Spectrum too broad	24	52.2%
Wrong spectrum/inadequate use ^c	12	26.1%
Insufficient dosage	7	15.2%
Inadequate duration	2	4.4%
Excessive dosage	1	2.2%
Spectrum too narrow	1	2.2%

^a More than one reason may apply for each patient.
^b If antibiotic given covered completely different spectrum than expected bacteria would require or no antibiotic therapy was warranted.
^c If bacteriological results had shown that identified bacteria were resistant to antibiotics used, or antibiotic covered completely different spectrum than expected bacteria would require or no antibiotic therapy was warranted.

ISSN: 1471-2334