Treatment of gram-negative bacillary meningitis: role of the new cephalosporin antibiotics.

Abstract

Results of the treatment of gram-negative bacillary meningitis have been disappointing: mortality is extremely high, and treatment with chloramphenicol has shown a high failure rate. This failure rate for chloramphenicol is consistent with the wide gap between minimal inhibitory concentration and minimal bactericidal concentration of this drug for Escherichia coli, Klebsiella, and other Enterobacteriaceae. Cefotaxime, a new cephalosporin, is cidal for most gram-negative bacteria at concentrations of less than 0.25 microgram/ml. By late 1981, 137 patients with meningitis due to a variety of bacteria had been treated with this agent. Bacteriologic cure rates were 93% for meningitis due to Streptococcus pneumoniae, Neisseria meningitidis, and Haemophilus influenzae and 88% for meningitis due to gram-negative bacteria (94.4% for meningitis due to E. coli and Klebsiella). This new antibiotic shows considerable promise in the treatment of these forms of meningitis.

• Authors: C E Cherubin, M L Corrado, S R Nair, M E Gombert, S Landesman, G Humbert
• Journal: Reviews of infectious diseases (Rev Infect Dis) 1982 Sep-Oct Vol. 4 Suppl Pg. S453-64 ISSN: 0162-0886 [Print] United States
• PMID: 6294799 (Publication Type: Clinical Trial, Journal Article)

Chemical References

• Aminoglycosides
• Anti-Bacterial Agents
• Cephalosporins
• Chloramphenicol
• Cefotaxime

Topics

• Adult
• Aminoglycosides (therapeutic use)
• Animals
• Anti-Bacterial Agents (therapeutic use)
• Bacterial Infections (drug therapy)
• Cefotaxime (metabolism, therapeutic use)
• Cephalosporins (therapeutic use)
• Chloramphenicol (therapeutic use)
• Clinical Trials as Topic
• Dogs
• Enterobacteriaceae Infections (drug therapy)
• Humans
• Infant
• Infant, Newborn
• Meningitis (drug therapy)