Antibiotic prescribing practice in the Intensive Care Unit of a Nigerian teaching hospital
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Date
2026
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Ethiopian Society of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine.
Abstract
Background: Antibiotics are vital in the prevention and treatment of bacterial in-
fections. However, prescribing practices often deviate from established guidelines
with prolonged durations of surgical prophylaxis, redundant antibiotic combina-
tions, and a significant reliance on broad-spectrum agents. This study aims to de-
termine antibiotic prescribing practices at our teaching hospital.
Methods: This was a prospective, descriptive, cross-sectional study of adult pa-
tients admitted to the ICU at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin, Kwa-
ra State, Nigeria. The study participants were critically ill patients between the ag-
es of 6 months and 65 years who were admitted to the ICU. Using a questionnaire,
information such as age, sex, diagnosis, antibiotic prescription, regularity of admin-
istration, use of microbiological investigations, and outcome of ICU care was ex-
tracted from the patients’ hospital files and recorded. Data from this study were
summarized and reported as means ± standard deviation, frequencies, or propor-
tions of the total. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically signifi-
cant.
Results: A total of 128 ICU patients were enrolled in the study. One hundred and
twenty-four (96.88%) patients were prescribed antibiotics. Antibiotic prescriptions
were for prophylactic reasons in 56 (45.16%) patients and for therapeutic reasons
in 68 (54.84%) patients. All antibiotic prescriptions were empirical. The most fre-
quently prescribed antibiotic was ceftriaxone. The most frequently prescribed anti-
biotic combination was Ceftriaxone/Metronidazole. There was no statistically sig-
nificant difference in gender (0.7651) and age (p = 0.0775) between those who sur-
vived to ICU discharge and those who died. Prophylactic antibiotic prescription was
associated with survival to ICU discharge compared to therapeutic prescription (p =
0.0018).
Conclusion: Ceftriaxone was the primary empirical ICU antibiotic therapy, while
metronidazole was used strategically for anaerobic coverage. In this study, critical
care physicians favored empirical therapy over targeted therapy.
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Citation
Ige O.A., Ojo O., Adewumi O., Agah O. (2026). Antibiotic prescribing practice in the Intensive Care Unit of a Nigerian Teaching Hospital. Pan African Journal of Emergency and Critical Care. 4(1):1-10.