In Vitro Activities of Cefpirome Against the Bacteria Isolated from the Patients in ICU, Oncology and Hematology Units

Chong, Yunsop; Lee, Kyungwon; Lee, Hyuk Min

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Infections due to antimicrobial resistant bacteria pose serious problem in the care of the patients in intensive care units, oncology and hematology. It was to determine the prevalent species and cefpirome susceptibilities of the current isolates from these patients.
METHODS
Bacteria isolated from patients in the intensive care units, oncology and hematology in a fertiary care university hospital in 1997 were analyzed for the prevalent species. Antimicrobial susceptibility of the strains, most of which were isolated in 1997, was tested by the NCCLS agar dilution method.
RESULTS
The proportion of potential pathogens isolated were: Staphylococcus aureus 16.1%, Acinetobacter baumannii 13.6%, Enterobacter-Serratia-Citrobacter group 12.1%, Enterococcus spp. 11.0% and Pseudomonas aeruginosa 10.4%. The lowest resistance rates were : A.baumannii to ampicillin/sulbactam (38%), P. aeruginosa to ceftazidime (37%), Providencia spp. to ceftriaxone (7%), S. marcescens to ceftazidime and cefpirome (10%), and E. coli (3%), K. pneumoniae (10%), E. cloacae (17%) and C. freundii (7%) to cefpirome. All isolates of penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae were susceptible to cefpirome.
CONCLUSION
The in vitro test suggests that cefpirome should be more useful than the other generations of cephalosporins for the treatment of various nosocomial infections including those due to the 3rd generation cephalosporin-resistant E. cloacae, S. marcescens, C. freundii and penicillin-resistant S. pneumoniae.