Sirisa Karki

Background: Surgical Antimicrobial Prophylaxis is administration of a short course of antimicrobial agent prior to surgery. It has long been recommended for routine use in preventing occurrence of surgical site infections. The choice of drug, dosage, route, duration and timing of antimicrobial prophylaxis has been specified in the clinical practice guideline issued by American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. In the present study, we aim to seek the practice of antibiotic prophylaxis at a tertiary care centre in central Nepal and report the adherence to American and National Antimicrobial Treatment Guideline where applicable. Methods: This hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted between January to June 2023 among 232 patients undergoing surgery at Chitwan Medical College Teaching Hospital. Data collection tool prepared with slight modification from previous studies recorded the demographic details, surgical data, surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis usage data and assessment of Prophylaxis data. Data analysis was done using SPSS-20. Results: We observed compliance to selection of drug, route of administration, dosage of antimicrobial prophylaxis with American guideline. All (100%) prophylaxis was administered parenterally for more than 72 hours in over 40% cases. Choice of drug was appropriate in over 84% of cases and dosage adequacy was observed in over 61% cases. Surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis was administered most frequently 30 minutes before surgery (52.59%). Conclusions: All the surgical patients were found to receive surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis. Ceftriaxone was the most commonly administered drug followed by combination of piperacillin and tazobactam. The duration of treatment post-surgery was found to be unnecessarily broader than recommended guideline.

Palliative patients generally present with symptoms of dyspnea, easy fatigability, lethargy and feeling of being unwell which can broadly be attributed to one root cause: cancer-related anemia. So, packed red cell transfusion is often carried out aiming to improve patients’ functional status. Different cut off hemoglobin values have been suggested, with Hb < 9 g/dL the most commonly accepted. The present study aims at evaluating and comparing the benefits in subjective symptoms of fatigue and breathlessness among transfused and non-transfused palliative patients on Day 0 and Day 7. Hemoglobin values, anemia related subjective symptoms of fatigue and breathlessness were recorded from 122 patients. The patients were re-evaluated on day-7 post-transfusion. The pre and post-transfusion symptomatic benefit was compared in both transfused and non-transfused palliative care patients. The currently practiced hemoglobin trigger for packed red cell transfusion is 10 g/dL. The units of packed red cell to be transfused was decided according to the hemoglobin values targeting the rise to > 10 g/dL. A mean 1.36 units were transfused. Statistically significant improvement was observed in patient reported symptoms of fatigue and breathlessness among both transfused and non-transfused palliative patients. Anemic cancer palliative patients were found to benefit following packed red cell transfusion, suggesting a favorable association between the transfusion and patient-reported fatigue and dyspnea.

Complete blood count is one of the routinely advised blood investigation during pregnancy. It is also utilized as a diagnostic tool for neonatal anemia, sepsis and determining hemostatic status of the newborn. The present study aims at estimating the complete blood count of maternal and umbilical cord blood at the time of delivery and to establish its correlation. This cross sectional study included 114 mothers and their healthy neonates born through normal vaginal delivery. Complete blood count of umbilical cord blood and maternal blood was estimated using automatic hematology analyzer. The mean maternal and neonatal hemoglobin concentration was 11.14 ± 1.39 g/dL and 16.34 ± 2.01 g/dL respectively. A significant positive correlation was found between maternal and fetal hemoglobin concentration (p < 0.001 and Pearson R = 0.496). The correlation between maternal and fetal WBC, RBC and Platelet count was not statistically significant. A significant positive correlation was found between maternal and fetal MCV and MCH while PCV showed a non-significant positive correlation. There was moderately positive correlation between maternal and fetal hemoglobin, MCV and MCH. The cord blood hemoglobin was lower in babies born to anemic mothers. The decrease in hemoglobin followed the severity of anemia, however, the correlation did not exist in anemic mothers. It suggested that fetal hematological parameters are not reflective of maternal hemogram.