Current use for old antibacterial agents: polymyxins, rifamycins, and aminoglycosides.

Abstract

This article reviews three classes of antibacterial agents that are uncommonly used in bacterial infections and therefore can be thought of as special-use agents. The polymyxins are reserved for gram-negative bacilli that are resistant to virtually all other classes of drugs. Rifampin is used therapeutically, occasionally as a companion drug in treatment of refractory gram-positive coccal infections, especially those involving foreign bodies. Rifaximin is a new rifamycin that is a strict enteric antibiotic approved for treatment of traveler's diarrhea and is showing promise as a possible agent for refractory Clostridium difficile infections. The aminoglycosides are used mainly as companion drugs for the treatment of resistant gram-negative bacillary infections and for gram-positive coccal endocarditis.

• Authors: Luke F Chen, Donald Kaye
• Journal: The Medical clinics of North America (Med Clin North Am) Vol. 95 Issue 4 Pg. 819-42, viii-ix (Jul 2011) ISSN: 1557-9859 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 21679793 (Publication Type: Journal Article)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.