Antibiotic management programme in a tertiary intensive care unit: effects of a carbapenem-restricted period on clinical and laboratory parameters and costs of infections

Objectives The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the carbapenem-restricted antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP) on changes in the resistance profiles of infectious agents, the amount of antibiotics used, length of stay in the intensive care unit (ICU), mortality and costs. Materials and methods The patients hospitalized in ICU between July 1, 2020 – May 1, 2021 were included the study. The study was divided in to two different periods, carbapenem not-restricted period (CNRP) and carbapenem restricted period (CRP). During CNRP, carbapenem were used by any restriction, and in CRP, the alternative antibiotics to carbapenems were preferred during infection. The Defined Daily Dose (DDD)-100 Patient Day (PD) methodology was used to calculate the antibiotic consumption. Results Of the 572 patients included in the study, 62.2% of the patients were male, mean age was 70.5 years. In the blood culture the most frequently gram negative agent was A.baumannii (25%). A. baumannii bloodstream infections with MDR, XDR was significantly different between the two periods (CNRP: 95.6% (22), CRP: 66.6%(8) p=0.04). A gradual decrease in the incidence density and rate of nosocomial infection was noted (p=0.06). During the study, a significant decrease in meropenem consumption was detected between the two periods (CNRP-CRP: 21.19-6.37 DDD/100 PD p=0.007). ASP provided a 8600 USD of antibiotic cost savings and a total of 14% patient cost savings (p<0.05) per patient. Conclusion We believe that combining an effective ASP with a comprehensive infection control program will mitigate the emergence of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria.