Antibiotic Exposure of Critically Ill Children at a Tertiary Care Paediatric Intensive Care Unit in Switzerland

Antibiotic overtreatment fosters multidrug-resistance that threatens healthcare systems worldwide as it increases patient morbidity and mortality. Contemporary data on antibiotic usage on tertiary care paediatric intensive care units for in- and external benchmarking are scarce. This was a single-centre retrospective quality control study including all patients with antibiotic treatment during their hospitalization at a paediatric intensive care unit in the time period 2019-2021. Antibiotic treatment was calculated as days of therapy (DOT) per 100 patient days (DOT/100pd). Further, the variables PIM II score, length of stay in intensive care (LOS), gender, age, treatment year, reason for intensive care unit admission, and death were assessed. Two thousand and forty-one cases with a median age of 10 months [IQR 0-64] were included; 53.4% were male, and 4.5% of the included patients died. Median LOS was 2.73 days [0.07-5.90], and PIM II score was 1.98% [0.02-4.86]. Overall, the antibiotic exposure of critically ill children and adolescents was 59.8 DOT/100pd. During the study period, the antibiotic usage continuously increased (2019: 55.2 DOT/100pd; 2020: 59.8 DOT/100pd (+8.2%); 2021: 64.5 DOT/100pd (+8.0%)). The highest antibiotic exposure was found in the youngest patients (0-1 month old (72.7 DOT/100pd)), in patients who had a LOS of >2-7 days (65.1 DOT/100pd), those who had a renal diagnosis (98 DOT/100pd), and in case of death (91.5 DOT/100pd). Critically ill paediatric patients were moderately exposed to antibiotics compared to data from the previously published literature. The current underreporting of antimicrobial prescription data in this cohort calls for future studies for better internal and external benchmarking.