19 - A Global Point Prevalence Survey of Antimicrobial Use in Neonatal Intensive Care Units

Background: Antimicrobials are one of the most commonly used medications in the NICU. We aimed to gather baseline global data on antimicrobial use to facilitate subsequent antimicrobial stewardship efforts.

Methods: We conducted a one-day global NICU point prevalence study on July 1, 2019 with a 30-day follow up. Data collection included patient demographics, antimicrobial therapy, site location, antimicrobial stewardship (AS) practices as well as the duration of antimicrobial therapy and in-hospital mortality were recorded.

Results: Eighty-one NICUs from twenty-eight different countries identified 2,163 admitted patients of which 570 (26%) were prescribed at least one antimicrobial. Three NICUs did not have any patients on antimicrobial therapy, all had less than 20 patients admitted. Level 3 and Level 4 NICUs comprised 51% and 48% respectively. Delivery units comprised 74%, the rest were referral centers. AS programs were in place in 62% of the hospitals and 47% of the units had NICU specific initiatives. Patients were on average 32.5 weeks gestational age (+/-5.3 SD), with birth weight of 1976 grams (+/- 1022 SD), and were 32 days (+/-65 SD) postnatal age at the time of the study.
Antibiotics were the most frequently used medication in 92% of patients with 931 antibiotics prescribed on the assessment day. Hospitals with any NICU AS initiative had significantly lower rates of antibiotic utilization compared to NICUs without AS (21% and 32%; p-value: < 0.01). Of those on antibiotic therapy, ampicillin, gentamicin and amikacin were prescribed to 41%, 34%, and 21% of patients respectively. When only definitive treatment was evaluated, vancomycin, amikacin, and meropenem were the highest prescribed antibacterial agents at 25%, 19%, and 19% respectively. At the initial assessment, study participants indicated either 3 or 7 days (37% and 26%) for planned duration. Actual treatment duration for empiric and definitive treatment, was 7 and 14 days (29% and 19%) When comparing patients who had an established treatment course at the time of the initial assessment, the final length of treatment for culture negative sepsis was 7 (IQR:5-10) and culture positive sepsis was 11 days (IQR:10-14; p-value: 0.07).

Conclusion: Benchmarking global antimicrobial use is crucial for improving NICU-AS practices.