WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

Akhil Sulaiman*, A. Bharath Kumar, M. Gayathri, P. Sirisha and Preethi S.

ABSTRACT

Switching from Intravenous to oral therapy as soon as patients are clinically stable can reduce the length of hospitalization and lower associated costs. Intravenous medications are more bioavailable and have greater effects, some oral drugs produce serum levels comparable to those of the parenteral form. Medications involved in switch therapy include antibiotics, analgesics, antipsychotics, and anti virals. Fluoroquinolones and macrolides were the most commonly converted antibiotics. Among the various routes of administration of medications, oral administration is considered to be the most acceptable and economical method of administration. The main drawback of intravenous to oral conversion is the belief that oral medications do not achieve the same bioavailability as that of intravenous medications and that the same agent must be used both intravenously and orally. Even though intravenous to oral therapy conversion is inappropriate for a patient who is critically ill or who has inability to absorb oral medications, every hospital will have a certain number of patients who are eligible for switch over from intravenous to oral therapy. A substantial number of patients starting on iv antibiotics were candidates for an early iv to oral therapy. The antibiotics are well accepted by the physicians and reduce the cost of the antibiotics and help to lower the medication errors in the community.