The objective of this study was to analyze the variation in antimicrobials' consumption and the costs related to their use at a University Hospital between 1999 and 2004. The annual consumption of nine antimicrobials, expressed in DDD/100 patients-day, and the direct costs with their acquisition were evaluated. Analysis of variance and regression techniques were used to compare data, considering a significance level of 5%. The most consumed antimicrobials were amikacin and ceftriaxone. In general, antimicrobials consumption, expressed in DDD/100 patients-day, increased from 9.21 in 1999 to 25.08 in 2004 (p<0.0001). When analyzing antimicrobial consumption as related to specific hospital units, the ICU showed the highest consumption followed by... |