Introduction: In Burkina Faso, as in most developing countries, limited
access to biological tests forces practitioners to resort very often to probabilistic antibiotic therapy. The objective of this study is to determine the extent of
this prescription. Patients and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study
with retrospective data collection of patients hospitalized in the infectious
diseases department in the period from January 1, 2005 to December 31,
2020. The records of patients who received probabilistic antibiotic therapy
were included. Results: During the study period, 330 patients had received
probabilistic antibiotic therapy. The majority of patients were male (53%),
with a sex ratio of 1.12. The mean age of the patients was 33 years ± 14. The
age range of 20 to 40 years was the most represented (42%). Fifteen percent
(15%) of patients were living with HIV. The majority of patients were from
urban areas (56.4%). Forty-nine percent (49%) of the patients worked in the
informal sector. Clinically, the reasons for consultation were dominated by
fever, alteration of general condition, neurological disorders, digestive disorders, respiratory signs, urinary signs and diffuse pain. The physical examination showed that 48.1% of the patients had meningeal irritation syndrome,
10% had convulsions and 10% had focal signs, trismus was present in 4% of
the patients and facial paralysis in 3%. In the digestive system, hepatomegaly
was present in 29% of patients and digestive candidiasis in 31%. Respiratory
examination showed crepitus and fluid effusion syndrome in 26.83% and
20.62% of patients respectively. The presumptive diagnosis was dominated by
bacterial meningitis, salmonellosis and bronchopneumonia with banal germs.
In terms of treatment, the beta-lactam family of drugs was the most prescribed. They were followed by aminoglycosides and fluoroquinolones. The
evolution was marked by the death of 50 patients (15%).Conclusion: The most prescribed molecules belong to the family of Beta-lactam. And this prescription improved the outcome of patients. Bacterial susceptibility studies
will allow better orientation of probabilistic antibiotic therapy in order to
limit the emergence of multi-resistant bacteria

Probabilistic Antibiotic Therapy, Beta-lactam