Antibiotic stewardship implementation at the largest solid organ transplantation center in Asia: a retrospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: Using Antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASP) to monitor the use of antibiotics can lead to improved antibiotic use and reduced costs. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study was done at Shiraz Organ Transplant Center, the largest transplant center in Asia. Antimicrobial use, cost, clinical outcomes, and antibiotic resistance pattern were evaluated before and after ASP. RESULTS: This study included 2791 patients, 1154 of whom were related to the time before ASP and 1637 to the time after ASP. During the period of the research, a total of 4051 interventions were done. The use of all classes of antibiotics was significantly reduced by ASP, with 329 DDD/100PD before the intervention compared to 201 DDD/100PD after it (p = 0.04). In addition, the overall cost of antibiotics purchased was much lower after the ASP measures were implemented ($43.10 per PD) than before implementation of the ASP measures ($60.60 per PD) (p = 0.03). After the implementation of ASP, the number of MDR isolates was significantly reduced. CONCLUSION: The results of our study showed that the implementation of ASP significantly reduced the number and costs of antibiotics and also the number of resistant pathogens, but did not affect the patients’ length of stay. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12893-023-01991-y.