The present study was aimed to obtain information about prescribing and utilization pattern of third generation cephalosporins; in a tertiary care hospital of Salem, Tamilnadu, India. The study was undertaken in general surgery, general medicine, orthopaedics, and ENT departments of a tertiary care hospital in Salem, Tamilnadu for a period of 10 months from January to October 2019. A total 300 prescriptions were collected and analyzed for the drug utilization review. During this period of this study, females (57%) were more likely to administer third-generation cephalosporins than males (43%). 51-60 age group patients were most commonly administered with the third generation cephalosporins and the maximum no of patients (34) were admitted with LRTI. Only 1.33% cases were found to have drug-drug interaction and the remaining 98.67% cases found to be no drug-drug interaction. The third generation cephalosporins were the first choice of antibiotics for many ailments in the study hospital. Even though antibiotics have important role in clinical care, efforts should be made to reduce the volume of unwanted third generation antibiotic prescribing. © 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.