Impact of appropriate empirical antibiotics therapy on the clinical outcome of patients with urinary tract infections (UTIs)

Background: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) have a high prevalence in Indonesia. UTI treatment is commonly done through empirical antibiotics usage; therefore the appropriate use of empirical antibiotics needs to be assessed. Objectives: This study was conducted to determine the impact of the appropriate use of empirical antibiotics on the outcome therapy of hospitalised UTI patients. Methods: This study was cross-sectional with retrospective data collected from patients' medical records. The population were all hospitalised patients who had received empirical antibiotic therapy for UTIs. Subjects were collected with purposive sampling. The appropriate application of empirical antibiotics, including the right type, dosage, route, duration, and frequency, was evaluated according to several guidelines. The collected data was then analysed descriptively. Results: The results showed that among 196 patients included in this study, antibiotics were appropriately used according to the type, route, dose, frequency, and duration in as many as 45.9% of patients, and 41.8% of them had improvements in therapy outcomes. On the other hand, 54.1% of patients were not using antibiotics according to the guidelines, and 48.0% of them still had improvements in therapy outcomes. Based on the Chi-squared test, the p-value was > 0.05 (0.64), and so the conclusion was made that there is no significant relationship between the accuracy of empirical antibiotic application with the outcomes of therapy. Conclusion: Thus, the application of empirical antibiotics following the guidelines does not always have an impact on improving treatment outcomes for UTI patients in the Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) Academic Hospital inpatient ward.