Abstract

RIBEIRO, Fátima; SILVA, Sónia Regina; VICENTE, Inês Nunes  and  ALMEIDA, Sílvia. Antibiotic prescription in a Paediatric Emergency Department from a Level II Hospital in the Central Region. Nascer e Crescer [online]. 2013, vol.22, n.4, pp.216-219. ISSN 0872-0754.

Introduction: The discovery of penicillin, in the late 1920s, revolutionized science and brought medicine into the modern era. Since then, many other antibiotics appeared on the market. Nowadays, one of the biggest problems in medicine is the indiscriminated use of antibiotics, which has led to the emergence of resistant bacteria. In this context, an appropriate use of antibiotics is essential to the maintenance of their own effectiveness. There are very few studies on antibiotic prescription from Paediatric Emergency Services in Portugal. Objective: Characterize oral antibiotics prescription in our Paediatric Emergency Service Unit. Material and Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of medical records from Alert ® computer database of children who attended the Paediatric Emergency Service Unit a randomly chosen day a month (a total of 30 days), from January 2008 to June 2010. Results: During the study period, 4317 children (meaning 144 children/day) were observed in the Paediatric Emergency Service Unit. Oral antibiotics were prescribed to 400 children (9,3%). The amoxicillin was the most prescribed antibiotic and acute otitis media was the most common diagnosis. Discussion: We concluded that there is a good balance in the prescription of oral antibiotics in our Paediatric Emergency Service Unit. Nonetheless, we propose some actions to improve oral antibiotic prescription.

Keywords : Antibiotics; emergency department service; pediatrics; prescription.

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