Twenty-six patients with
enteric fever treated with
amdinocillin and/or its pivaloyloxymethyl
ester in 1975 to 1978 were compared with 21 patients with
enteric fever treated with
trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole in 1972 to 1974. Diagnosis was based on clinical illness and isolation of Salmonella typhi or S. paratyphi A/B from blood cultures or stool cultures. The dosage of
pivamdinocillin in adults was 400 to 800 mg, every 6 hours, for 10 to 16 days; dosage in children was half this amount for 11 to 15 days. Of the 21 patients treated with
trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, 18 (86 percent) showed a satisfactory clinical response; 13 of these 18 had negative stools immediately after
therapy, and two more were negative at the time of discharge (total: 83 percent). Mean
hospital stay of these patients was 34.5 days. Of the 26 patients treated with
amdinocillin, 23 showed a satisfactory clinical response; 20 of those responding clinically were still excreting the causative organism at the end of
therapy; seven of the group remained as convalescent patients who continued to excrete the causative organism in feces at the time of discharge. Mean
hospital stay was 43 days. The results of initial trials of
amdinocillin and
ampicillin in combination suggest that such
therapy may be preferable to use of
amdinocillin alone, although the excretion of the causative organism during
convalescence has not been adequately assessed.