Analysis of CAST in 9 Lebanese hospitals between 2008 and 2017

Abstract

Background: Cumulative Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing (CAST) plays a crucial role in providing knowledge about the evolution of bacterial resistance. The preparation of such report is however prone to many errors. This study investigated the variety of mistakes detected in the CAST of 9 Lebanese hospitals.

Methods: Nine Lebanese hospitals were involved, where 21 different errors were looked for and analyzed. The total number of errors in each year was calculated and averaged according to the number of hospitals. Obtaining the average number of errors per hospital per year allowed the comparison of each hospital individually.

Results: The average number of errors in 2008 was 38.75 and increased to 51.5 in 2012. The average number of errors then decreased to 37.89 by 2017. The most common error between 2008-2017 was the incoherent percentages. Superimposing these results allowed to determine if hospitals in general were following the trend of average errors. Some hospitals were constantly improving, others were making a variable number of errors over the years.

Conclusion: The percentages of errors found here are alarming, urging therefore educating microbiologists on preparing CAST correctly. Future studies should aim to study the physician's level of knowledge on the proper utilization of CAST.

Keywords: Antibiogram; Bacterial resistance; CAST.