Objective:The objective of this study was to monitor the antimicrobial utilization in ENT out patient services in a tertiary care hospital of Nepal.

Materials & Methods: A total of 191 prescriptions were randomly audited at varying time interval from the department of ENT in the year2003. The data was collected in customized Performa in the form of antibacterial audit questionnaires. It also contained Patient particulars, diagnosis, investigations, drug details and information from the prescriber regarding the indication for prescribing antimicrobial agent, suspecting organism underlying infection, duration of therapy and details of any concomitant medications.

Results: The incidence of use of antimicrobial agents (AMA) in 191 prescriptions was analyzed from the enrolled prescriptions, a total of 218 antimicrobials i.e.1.4 antimicrobial agent per patient were prescribed. .The AMAs were indicated therapeutically in 73.29% of patients & 19.37% patients for prophylaxis. The AMAs were advised for more than 72 hours for prophylaxis in 86.48%. In the concomitant medications antihistaminic were prescribed in 32.62% and NSAIDS in 21.98% cases. Most of patients reported with upper respiratory tract infections (URTI- 32.56%), Chronic Suppurative otitis Media (CSOM-18.3%), sinusitis (6.28%), tonsillitis (5.75%),. Pharyngitis (3.66%), Acute Suppurative Otitis Media (ASOM-2.61%) and others. The diagnosis was established clinically in 42.40% and confirmative in 35.60%. In 21.46% the diagnosis was not disclosed. Out of 191 patients, culture

sensitivity tests were performed for only 31 patients and 13 patients depicted a positive culture sensitivity tests. The common microbes isolated from the culture were staphylococcus aureus (69.2%). Streptococcus (7.7%), Enterobacteriacae (7.7%), Pseudomonas auroginosa (7.7%) & psendomanas mirabilis (7.7%). Clinically suspected organism were mentioned in only 32 prescriptions and most prescriber presumed the infections due to staphylococci & pseudomonas (43.75%), streptococci (21.8%),Gram negative organisms (12.5%) and H influenza (9.3%).The use of a single drug was abundant (89.52%), two drugs (9.94%), and three drugs (0.52% )prescriptions. Ciprofloxacin

(23.85%) was preferred, followed by amoxycillin (20.06%), combination of ampicillin + cloxacillin( 9.17%), doxycyclin (5.96%). Erythromycin (4.58%) and cotimoxazole (4.58%). Expensive drugs i.e azithromycin (2.75%), roxithromycin (1.37%) and cephalosporins (3.21%) were also prescribed. The causative microbes were sensitive to amoxycillin (53.84%), cloxacillin (53.84%) ciprofloxacin (46.15%), gentamicin (46.15%), and cephalosporin(46.15%). But resistant to erythromycin, tetracycline, cotrimoxazole and norfloxacin)

Conclusions-Majority of patients were prescribed drugs irrationally with misleading indications without confirming the bacteriological culture and sensitivity.