Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Assessment of tigecycline prescription and patients outcomes at three different hospitals in Saudi Arabia

Mansour Tobaiqy^1,2 , Saad Al Humaid³, Derek Stewart⁴, Fayez Omear Alotaibi⁵, Kamal Ahmad Qureshi⁶, Katie MacLure⁴, Fahad Algharib³, Ahmed Alsameti³, Ahmed Alsaqer³, Ahmad Almeman⁷

¹Patient Safety, Maternity and Children's Hospital, Ministry of Health, Jeddah; ²Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Jeddah, Jeddah; ³Administration of Pharmaceutical Care, Alhassa, Saudi Arabia; ⁴School of Pharmacy and Life Sciences, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, United Kingdom; ⁵Department of Inpatient Pharmacy, King Fahad Jeddah Hospital, Jeddah; ⁶Department of Microbiology, College of Pharmacy Unizah; ⁷Department of Pharmacology & Therapeutics, College of Medicine, University of Qassim, Qassim, Saudi Arabia.

For correspondence:- Mansour Tobaiqy Email: m.tobaiqy@moh.gov.sa

Received: 15 May 2015 Accepted: 6 September 2015 Published: 31 October 2015

Citation: Tobaiqy M, Humaid SA, Stewart D, Alotaibi FO, Qureshi KA, MacLure K, et al. Assessment of tigecycline prescription and patients outcomes at three different hospitals in Saudi Arabia. Trop J Pharm Res 2015; 14(10):1919-1926 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v14i10.26

© 2015 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate tigecycline prescription and patient outcomes in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

Methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted in three KSA government hospitals, between January, 2013 and May, 2014. The patients were identified from electronic prescription records; data were retrieved by trained researchers.

Results: Thirty-seven patients who received tigecycline were included (mean age, 52.5 years; range, 17 92); 51.4 % were female. Tigecycline was prescribed for sepsis (59.5 %), pneumonia (21.6 %), and/or intra-abdominal infections (13.5 %). The majority of the patients (86.5 %) were prescribed tigecycline in intensive care unit (ICU) and the remaining patients were in the general medical ward. APCHE II score at the beginning of treatment was 16.8 ± 4.3, indicating severe disease. Susceptibility testing revealed 22 different bacterial pathogens, most commonly Acinetobacter baumannii (20 patients) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (14 patients). A significant proportion (56.7 %) was polymicrobial and 16.2 % involved suspected resistant pathogens. Sixteen patients recovered (5 on tigecycline alone, 5 with additional antimicrobials, and six switched to alternatives) while 21 patients died (nine on tigecycline alone, 12 with additional antimicrobials).

Conclusions: The study revealed that tigecycline prescription was conducted according to marketing authorizations and national guidelines. Infection severity/stage and comorbidities may influence patients’ response, and explain some of the poor outcomes.

Keywords: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Prescription patterns, Mortality, Tigecycline, Antimicrobial