HomeREGISTERREGISTERSITEMAPContact us
Home > Available Issues
Original Articles
Activity of cefepime against Enterobacter cloacae, Serratia marcescens, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and other aerobic gram-negative bacilli
Yunsop Chong,Kyungwon Lee and Oh Hun Kwon
Department of Clinical Pathology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
Vol.24 Num.1 (p1~12)
Infections due to such resistant bacteria as Citrobacter freundii, Enterobacter cloacae, Serratia marcescens and Pseudomonas aeruginosa became increasingly serious treatment problem at large medical centers, in Korea. Cefepime was reported to be more active than other cephalosporins against these problem organisms. The activity of cefepime against the bacteria isolated mostly from inpatients at a hospital in Seoul, in 1991, were tested by the agar dilution method. Among the antimicrobial agents tested, cefepime showed the lowest MIC90 against C. freundii and E. cloacae, 0.12μg/mL and 8μg/mL, respectively. MIC90 of cefepime and amikacin, 8μg/mL, was the lowest against S. marcescens. MIC90 of cefepime, ceftazidime and doxycycline, 32μg/mL, were the lowest against Acinetobacter anitratus. Against P. aeruginosa, the MIC90 was relatively high, 32μg/mL, but still the lowest. Among the cefotaxime-resistant E. cloacae- only 7% showed resistance to cefepime, while 100%, 96% and 89% were resistant to ceftazidime, ceftizoxime and cefuzonam, respectively. Again, only 6% of gentamicin-resistant isolates were resistant to cefepime, compared to 91%, 72%, 69% and 63% to ceftazidime, ceftizoxime, cefuzonam and cefotaxime, respectively. The highly active in vitro test result should indicate the usefulness of cefepime for the treatment of various gram-negative bacilli infections including nosocomial ones.
Keywords :