Antimicrobial Use in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit during a 4-Year Period

Background: Due to the difficulty in the diagnosis, high morbidity, and mortality, many empirical antimicrobial treatments have been used on suspicion of neonatal sepsis, leading to inappropriate use of broad-spectrum antibiotics and prolonged duration of therapies. Aim: The aim of this study was to characterize the antimicrobial use in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in 4 years. Methods: This was a retrospective study from January 2013 to December 2016, in a 6-bed NICU from a private small hospital from the South of Brazil. To evaluate the antibiotic use, all results were quantified using days of therapy (DOT) measurement per 100 patients-day (DOT/100PD).Results: Three hundred and sixty-six patients were admitted into the unit. Total antimicrobial use decreased from 78.7 DOT/100PD in 2013 to 73.3 DOT/100PD in 2016. Individually, we observed a reduction from 22.2 to 15.9 DOT/100PD in ampicillin use and 22.7 to 14.2 DOT/100PD for gentamicin. Vancomycin utilization was stable 12.9 DOT/100PD, while oxacillin utilization is increased from 0.6 DOT/100PD to 7.8 DOT/100PD. Conclusions: The changes in antibiotic use during the years could be the result of the multiprofessional efforts in practicing antibiotic stewardship.