Skin And Skin Structure Infections Are The Second Most Common Diagnoses For Which An Antibiotic Is Used In The Hospital Setting

Main Category: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses
Also Included In: MRSA / Drug Resistance;  Dermatology
Article Date: 23 Jun 2009 - 1:00 PDT

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Arlington Medical Resources (AMR), a provider of premier market intelligence for the pharmaceutical and diagnostic imaging industries, finds that for the July - December 2008 time period, skin and skin structure infections continue to be the second most common diagnoses for which an antibiotic is used in the hospital setting. Antibiotic use for these infections is up 3 percent compared to the January - June 2008 time period. Lower respiratory infections continue to rank first with 29 percent of therapy courses even though this represents a 4 percent decrease from the previous audit period.

The newly released U.S. edition of The Hospital Antibiotic Market Guide also finds that skin and skin structure infections are most commonly treated empirically while just under one-third are documented. Vancomycin, cefazolin, piperacillin/tazobactam and clindamycin, all in injectable form, are routinely used to treat these infections regardless of the intent -- empiric or documented.

"Among the documented courses to treat MRSA associated skin and skin structure infections, vancomycin (45 percent of therapy courses) is used more often followed by clindamycin (17 percent of therapy courses) and linezolid (16 percent of therapy courses)," stated Joyce Wedemeyer, product director at AMR.

The Hospital Antibiotic Market Guide now includes an executive level dashboard that allows the user to manipulate and download data to analyze indications or diagnoses, examine specific antibiotics and their usage across all indications and specialties and study prescribing patterns by physician specialty.

Why Pharmaceutical Companies Need this Information

The Hospital Antibiotic Market Guide enables pharmaceutical companies to monitor patient shares, costs, infectious disease prevalence and the clinical use of antibiotics in acute care hospitals. In addition, pathogen-level details are available for those inpatient antibiotic drug courses associated with positive microbiological culture results.

About The Hospital Antibiotic Market Guide

The Hospital Antibiotic Market Guide is the industry's most comprehensive audit of inpatient antibiotic usage covering acute care hospitals in the United States, Italy, Germany, France, U.K. and Spain. The information in the audit is abstracted directly from hospital source documents from a panel of demographically representative acute care hospitals of all sizes. The U.S. data is published twice a year and the European data is published once a year.

About AMR

AMR serves the market intelligence needs of the pharmaceutical and diagnostic imaging industries. Research includes clinical inpatient databases that directly link anti-infective drug with indication/procedure, formulary and stocking status tracking studies, drug purchasing audits and diagnostic imaging procedure volume/contrast media usage audits. AMR is a Decision Resources, Inc. company.

About Decision Resources, Inc.

Decision Resources, Inc. is a cohesive portfolio of companies that offers best-in-class, high-value information and insights on important sectors of the healthcare industry. Clients rely on this analysis and data to make informed decisions.

All company, brand or product names contained in this document may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Source: Arlington Medical Resources