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Evaluation of Antibiotic Use in Patients Admitted to a Hungarian Intensive Care Unit with Pneumonia and Sepsis: Retrospective Observational Before-After Study

Fésüs A, Szilágyi Z, Beniczky Z, Varga E, Matuz M, Gaál K, Somodi S, Bácskay I et al.

Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland), 2026

Abstract

Background: Early and adequate empiric antibiotic therapy is essential in the treatment of pneumonia and sepsis and may influence the clinical outcome. Aims and Objectives: This retrospective before-after study aimed to appraise the impact of a local Antibiotic Stewardship Program (ASP-written guidelines and antibiotic restriction) on antibiotic (AB) use and clinical outcomes in patients requiring intensive care due to pneumonia and sepsis. Methods: This study was conducted as a single-center, retrospective observational study in the intensive care unit (ICU) of a pulmonology department of a tertiary care center. Data were collected for the pre-intervention period between January 2018 and May 2022 and for the ASP period between June 2022 and March 2024. In addition to descriptive statistics and univariable methods, interrupted time series (ITS) analysis was used to assess AB use and length of stay in the ICU before and after ASP implementation, using a segmented linear regression with a fixed breakpoint and continuous (hinge) specification. Results: The patients admitted to the ICU with pneumonia and sepsis were mainly men (58/101, 57.4% and 84/128, 65.6%), the need for intensive care increased with age, and most of the patients belonged to 65+ age group in both study phases (69/101, 68.3% and 75/128, 58.6%). The majority of the patients had four or more comorbidities (58/101, 57.4% and 52/128, 40.6%). In-hospital mortality was relatively high (42.6% and 41.4%), with most of…

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