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BACKGROUNDS. Antibiotics are antibacterial agents that are used for empirical, oriented and prophylactic treatment of various infectious diseases. Although the majority of antibiotics is prescribed outside hospitals, hospitals remain foci of formation of bacterial resistance. Despite numbers of research were made around the world we still do not know what should the optimal usage of antibiotics in hospitals be like.

METHODS. In this retrospective study we included medical documentation of adult patients hospitalized at the Department of Infectious Diseases Ljubljana between 1. 1. and 31. 12. 2009 with the discharge diagnosis involving one of the top five infectious anatomical diagnosis. We calculated the consumption of antibiotics in defined, recommended and prescribed daily doses. We compared calculated results with the results obtained from the regular monitoring of the antibiotic consumption.

RESULTS. Two thousand three hundred and forty-nine adult patients were treated at the Department of Infectious Diseases Ljubljana in 2009. Eighty-three percent of all hospitalizations were due to infectious diseases. Average length of stay was 16.63 days. One hundred and fifty-seven hospitalizated patients were included in the study, 147 recieved antibiotical treatment (93.6 %). Overall consumption of the antibiotics was 316.08 DDD/100 patient-days. It differed from
the consumption estimated with regular monitoring by 18 % (266.7 DDD/100 patient-days). Prescribed antibiotic treatment was in accordance with Slovenian recommendations in 134 patients (83.75 %).

CONCLUSIONS. With our methodology based on discharge diagnosis and length of hospitalization we were able to determine the overall consumption and structure of prescribed antibiotics in adult hospital wards. In all cases, there were large discrepancies between defined and recommended and defined and prescribed daily doses.