Search

Background and Objective: Streptococcus pneumoniae is the main etiological agent of community-acquired pneumonia. The aim of this work was to ascertain the resistance profiles of pneumococcus to penicillin and erythromycin and to analyse whether such profiles lead to different disease developments., Patients and Method: A retrospective analysis was carried out in 75 cases of pneumococcal pneumonia corresponding to hospitalized patients. Comorbidity factors were evaluated including their influence on the appearance of resistance., Results: 67 patients (89.3%) presented comorbidity factors. 49.3% isolates displayed some type of resistance: 38.6% to penicillin, 36% to erythromycin and 13.3% to cefotaxime. No relationship was observed between the severity of the pneumonia and antibiotic resistance. Complications and mortality were not influenced by the susceptibility of pneumococcus to antibiotics., Conclusion: The increase in the resistance to antibiotics, especially erythromycin, makes betalactams the best choice for the treatment of pneumococcal pneumonia.

A case of meningitis caused by Streptococcus Equisimilis and cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhea, in which the head trauma occurred 16 years before, is presented. To the best of the author's knowledge this is the first case reported with such characteristics. Several precipitating factors could be responsible for the unusually late reopening of the fistula Streptococci equisimilis is an uncommon cause of the bacteremia. An appropriate antimicrobrial therapy against S. Equisimilis followed by surgical dural repair were performed.

We present a case of frontal sinusitis complicated with a subdural empyema, in which the identified microorganism was Gemella morbillorum, a frequent host of the aerodigestive tract and occasionally related to infections. The problem was resolved successfully using endoscopic surgery and an external approach of the sinus. Afterwards it was completed with a subdural drainage through craniotomy. Subdural empyema is a rare complication of sinusitis although very severe. We want to emphasize the importance of early diagnosis of intracranial complications, the need of a detailed microbiology test the method used to obtain samples, and the convenience of a combined approach by the otolaryngologists and the neurosurgeons for its complete drainage.

Objective: Afer twenty years of commercial availability of cefotaxime, the objective of this study was to know the reasons and modes of use, administration dosage as well as its effectiveness and tolerance in critically ill patients admitted to Intensive Care Units (ICU) in our country., Design: Open, prospective, observational, multicenter study., Subjects: All patients who had cefotaxime administered in monotherapy or in combination with other antibiotics were included as cases in this study., Results: A total of 624 patients were included in 44 ICUs (average 14 cases). Cefotaxime was indicated for therapy of 274 community-acquired infections (43.9%), 194 prophylaxis (31.1%), and 156 nosocomial infections (25.0%). Both community-acquired pneumonia (149, 34.7%) and mechanical ventilation associated pneumonia (62, 14.4%) predominated, followed by trachebronchitis (60, 13.9%) and central nervous system infections (42, 9.8%). Over half of infections (222, 51.6%) presented as systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), 133 (30.9%) as severe sepsis, and 75 (17.4%) as septic shock. In 374 (87.0%) out of the 430 cases of infection treatment, cefotaxime wan prescribed on an empirical basis and in 150 of them (40.1%) a further confirmation of the causative agent was obtained. In 120 (27.9%) cases, cefotaxime was administered as monotherapy and in the remaining cases in association with one or more antibiotics.The use of cefotaxime as prophylaxis was evaluated as failure in 31 (16.0%) of the cases, whereas in treatment it was considered as failure in 98 (22.8%) of the 430 cases, 51 community-acquired infections, 27 (27.3%) of ICU-acquired infections, and 20 (35.1%) nosocomial infections acquired outside the ICU. In 127 (29.5%) of the 430 infection treatments the initial treatment was changed. The reasons for the change included clinical failure (36, 28.3%), recovery of an uncovered pathogen with the antibiotic (40, 31.5%), emergence of multi-resistant pathogens (28, 22.0%), to decrease the therapeutic spectrum (7, 5.5%), and other reasons (16). Cefotoxime was also changed in 21 (6.0%) of the 194 cases in which it was used as prophylaxis. In 32 (5.1%) patients 37 adverse effects were noted which were associated with a possible or likely use of cefotaxime. Most notably, diarrhoea in 15 (2.4%) occasions and skin rash in 6 cases (1.0%)., Conclusions: Cefotaxime is still one of the therapies of choice for community-acquired and nosocomial infections as well as in different prophylactic modes. It is mostly used on an empirical basis and associated with other antibiotics. Clinical and microbiological efficiency is high whereas adverse effects related to its use have been scarce.

Orbital cellulitis is an uncommon complication resulting from a spectrum of disorders commonly found in pediatric practice. It usually occurs as a complication of infection of the paranasal sinuses, although it also can be caused by eyelid or dental juries, dental infection and external ocular infection. We studied the clinical, microbiological, and therapeutic features of 152 children diagnosed as periorbital cellulitis and 27 children with orbital cellulitis admitted to our hospital in a 16-year period from January 1983 to December 1998. Twenty-four percent of patients (43 cases) had positive cultures. Thirty children with septal or preseptal cellulitis developed neurological or ophthalmological complications. Intravenous or oral antibiotic administration was effective in 150 patients, but a significant proportion required surgery of the paranasal sinus or orbit (16%).

Pyogenic liver abscess are macroscopic collections of pus within the hepatic parenchyma after a bacterial infection. These infections are usually polymicrobial in nature, and in most occasions due to biliary tract diseases or cryptogenetic in origin. Monomicrobial hepatic abscess caused by Klebsiella pneumoniae are uncommon lesions in western countries. These lesions are associated with underlying diseases, particularly diabetes mellitus, and are frequently complicated with septic metastasis. We report here three cases of monomicrobial liver abscess caused by Klebsiella pneumoniae in diabetic patients, without septic metastasis and a favourable outcome.

Background: Community-acquired non-complicated acute pyelonephritis (APN) is a frequent, occasionally serious infection (around 20% of the cases are bacteremic) that usually requires hospital admission. The third generation oral cephalosporins which are active against more than 95% of E. coli strains should allow the outpatient management of these patients., Objective: To evaluate the bacteriological and clinical efficacy of oral cefixime in comparison to amoxicilin plus netilcilin in the treatment of APN., Patients and Methods: Patients older than 18 years affected by APN were included in a fourteen month prospective study. According to a random numbers chart, the patients received cefixime (400 mg/24 h in a single daily dose for 12 days) or amoxicilin (1 g/8 h per os) plus netilmicin (4 mg/kg/24 h in a single intramuscular daily dose) during five days followed by 7 days of an oral treatment chosen according to the susceptibility pattern of isolated microorganism., Results: Sixty-one patients received cefixime and 65 amoxicillin plus retilmicin. There were no significant differences between both groups of patients. Thirty-two patients presented bacteremia (25.4%). The mean (SD) eak and trough concentrations of netilmicin were 11.4 (2.8) mg/l and 0.38 (0.4) mg/l, respectively. Clinical response was favorable in 97% of patients treated with cefixime and in 98% of those treated with amoxicilin plus netilmicin (p = NS). The infection recurred in 10 out of 59 patients (16.9%) in the cefixime arm of the study and in 9 out of 64 patients (14%) treated with amoxicillin plus netilmicin (p = NS). Tolerance to the study drugs was good in both arms of the study, and renal function remained normal., Conclusion: Cefixime seems to be an acceptable alternative to the regimens containing an aminopenicillin and an aminoglycoside for the treatment of community-acquired non-complicated APN.

Background: The empiric antibiotic treatment of intraabdominal infections is in constant evolution. Monotherapy appears to be a desirable goal because of the simplicity of its administration, lack of toxic effects and wide spectrum., Patients and Methods: A multicentre, prospective, randomized, open study was carried out to compare two antibiotic regimens in the treatment of intraabdominal infections in patients undergoing surgery. Ninety-eight consecutive patients were randomly allocated into two groups. One group (GM, n = 51) received meropenem (1 g/8 h) and the other (GCM, n = 47) a combination of cefotaxime (2 g/8 h) plus metronidazol (0.5 g/8 h). Clinical and bacteriological responses were assessed at the end of treatment and at 2-4 weeks., Results: The severity of patients as assessed by the APACHE II score was similar in both groups (GM: 7.2 and GCM: 8.1). Three patients in each group could not be evaluated due to premature interruption of treatment or deviation from the protocol. The mean duration of treatment was 7.4 days in GM and 7.9 days in GCM. A satisfactory clinical response was obtained in 95% of patients in both groups. 31 patients (61%) in GM and 26 patients (55%) in GCM were bacteriologically evaluable. Bacteriological erradication was achieved in 94% of patients in GM and in 92% of patients in GCM., Conclusion: Meropenem is a good alternative for single antibiotic therapy in intraabdominal infections of moderate severity.

Background: To study the factors implicated in the infectious process (host, microorganism and antibiotic) of a newborn early sepsis by S. agalactiae that suffered a reactivation at day five from discharge., Methods: Description of two episodes of newborn sepsis by S. agalactiae corresponding to the same patient and microbiologic study of the isolated strain: typing by "genomic macrorestriction" and antibiotic tolerance by "timed killing curves"., Results: It was demonstrated that both strains of S. agalactiae type la/c belonged to the same clone as well as the tolerance to ampicillin of the strain., Discussion: This sort of infections processes in the newborn are very serious and there is possibility of relapse. Thus, it is important to study the ethiologic agent and its relationship with antibiotics, in order to stablish the best treatment regimes, avoiding the possibility of relapses as the case we have described.

Background: Streptococcus pneumoniae is an uncommon agent of infective arthritis. In this report three cases of pneumococcal arthritis are described., Methods: Retrospective review of synovial fluids processed in our laboratory yielding bacteria. The study period was from January 1991 to December 1995. The clinical records of patients with the clinical and microbiological diagnosis of septic arthritis were reviewed., Results: Twenty-eight out of a total of 43 clinical records had the clinical and microbiological diagnosis of septic arthritis and three (11%) were caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. The infective source in two of these three cases was probably the respiratory tract, and the most common location was the knee., Conclusions: In our cases immunosuppression seemed to be the major risk factor involved in the development of pneumococcal arthritis.

Prospective, randomized, multicenter study in 267 patients with complicated urinary infection from 9 hospitals nationwide. Drug treatment was either Ceftriaxone 1 g once daily parenterally or Cefotaxime parenteral 1 g 8 hourly for a minimum of 7 days. Patients were clinically, analytically and microbiologically evaluated before and after treatment to assess the efficacy and tolerance of both drug products. To evaluate treatment cost, we used the price of both drugs and the material required for their administration (syringe and disposable needle). 119 patients were excluded from the cost-efficacy evaluation and 148 remained in the study (75 assigned to treatment with Ceftriaxone and 73 to Cefotaxime). Clinical efficacy of treatment was 93% and 87.6% for Ceftriaxone and Cefotaxime respectively (p > 0.05). Cost per patient was 27,347 pesetas for Ceftriaxone and 34,490 for Cefotaxime (p < 0.05).

A comparative study of Cefminox, a new cefamicin, and Cefotaxime was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the former in the treatment of complicated urinary infection, and to correlate in both cases the bacteriological response with isolates MICs. To this end a phase III, randomized, blind and controlled clinical trial was conducted in 22 patients who met the study's preestablished criteria, 19 of which were evaluable. Both treatments achieved 100% clinical efficacy, while microbiological eradication was accomplished in 90.9% patients treated with Cefminox and 75% patients who received the comparator. Cefminox shows greater in vivo activity than that expected for the MICs, excellent efficacy and safety.

The effectiveness of antibiotic prophylaxis was evaluated in the immediate postoperative period of renal transplantation (RT). Before RT, the patients were randomly assigned to one of the following groups: 1) cefotaxime (intravenous infusion of 1 g one hour before the operation). 2) Ceftriaxone (1 g i.v. given in a similar way). 3) Control (without antibiotics). Patients who required antibiotic therapy during the first 3 postoperative weeks were excluded. 20 recipients of cadaveric renal grafts were included in each group. There were 39 males and 21 females with a mean age of 39.9 years. One patient from the cefotaxime group (5%), 2 from the ceftriaxone group (10%) and 2 from the control group (10%) developed infection of the surgical wound, all due to grampositive organisms. 19 patients had urinary tract infections: 7 from the control group (35%), 7 from the cefotaxime group (35%), and 5 from the ceftriaxone group (25%). The development of wound infection was not correlated with urea, creatinine, hemoglobin or total protein levels, or with urinary tract infection or fistula, diabetes or fever. The mean packed red cell volume of the patients who developed wound infection was 24.7 +/- 1.2 vs 28.6 +/- 6.6 in those who did not (p less than 0.01). All patients with visible hematoma and 3 of 10 with perirenal blood collection had wound infection. It was concluded that antibiotic prophylaxis for renal transplantation was useless in our patients.