Pharmacist Intervention for Appropriate Use of Oral Antimicrobials in Outpatient Dental and Oral Surgeries

• Published in: Japanese Journal of Infection Prevention and Control Vol. 40; no. 1; pp. 8 - 12
• Main Authors: ENDO, Ryosuke, MIYAZAKI, Hiromitsu, HOSHI, Takanobu, SATO, Hideki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Japanese
• Published: Japanese Society for Infection Prevention and Control 25.01.2025
• Subjects: antibiotic; antimicrobial resistance; antimicrobial stewrardship; antimicrobial use density
• ISSN: 1882-532X; 1883-2407
• DOI: 10.4058/jsei.40.8

Considering the need to promote appropriate antibiotic use, an action plan was developed to address the problem of drug-resistant bacteria. Despite the support for appropriate antibiotic use in inpatient management, support for pharmacist-led interventions is limited in dental/oral surgery. Therefore, we aimed to clarify the effects of pharmacist-led interventions among outpatients in dental and oral surgery departments who were prescribed amoxicillin hydrate (AMPC) and cefditoren pivoxil (CDTR-PI) from October 2018 to September 2020 (preintervention group) and October 2020 to September 2022 (postintervention group), respectively, and were enrolled as study participants. We compared the average antimicrobial use density (AUD) between the preintervention and postintervention groups (AMPC: 22.2 vs. 62.7; CDTR-PI: 139.3 vs. 82.3, respectively), revealing a significant difference in CDTR-PI (p < 0.05). Despite no significant increase in the average AUD for AMPC with pharmacist-led prescription support, the use of third-generation cephalosporins significantly decreased. Thus, a pharmacist-led intervention can promote appropriate antibiotic use in outpatient settings per the current guidelines.