Introduction and objectives: Inappropriate use of antibiotics specifically, the broad spectrum antibiotics in respiratory tract infections results in resistance to antibiotics. The common use of antibiotics is the prime reason for the spread of drug resistant bacterial strains which not only results in costly treatment, but also high rate of morbidity and mortality. Hence, the present study was aimed at evaluating the prescribing pattern of antibiotics, disease conditions for which they were prescribed in the departments of Respiratory medicine, General medicine and ENT department. Methodology: A prospective observational study was carried out involving in-patients of respiratory medicine, general medicine, and ENT departments of a 750 bedded tertiary teaching hospital for six months (November -2013 to May- 2014). The data of sixty seven patients were collected for the study in predefined forms from the medical case records and drug charts. The enrolled patients were observed from admission till discharge. Descriptive statistics were applied to the collected data and analyzed using Microsoft Excel software. Institutional Research and Ethics committee clearance were obtained prior to the study. Results: The mean age of the study population was 56.2years and the mean duration of the hospitalization among the study population was 6.9 (±) days. LRTI was found to be the common diagnosis in the study population and the most commonly prescribed antibiotic was cephalosporin. Conclusions: From this study, it is concluded that cautious and judicious use of antibiotics enables better patient management limiting the resultant morbidity and mortality arising from respiratory tract infections.
