A Study on the Usage Pattern of Antimicrobial Agents for the Prevention of Surgical Site Infections (SSIs) in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital.

Context: Inappropriate antimicrobial use increases the incidence of drug resistance, drug toxicity and superinfections, thereby increasing the healthcare costs. Various approaches for rationalizing the antimicrobial therapy, have been suggested. Collection of baseline data on the pattern of the antimicrobial use is usually suggested as the first step in this direction, which will help in identifying the problem areas, which demand our attention.