Economic implications of oral treatment replacing parenteral therapy in antimicrobial chemotherapy.

The cost of antimicrobial chemotherapy is a major part of the total hospital pharmacy cost. Parenteral administration is considerably more expensive than oral and until recently was the only available therapy for nosocomial and resistant bacterial infections. Apart from the cost of the antimicrobial agent itself, many other factors such as the infusion sets, catheters and cannulae, monitoring of blood to avoid toxicity and other laboratory investigations will influence the costs. The introduction of ciprofloxacin, a new quinolone, with a wide range of bacterial activity which can be prescribed orally, will have economic advantages in the treatment of hospital infections.