TREATMENT OF ANAEROBIC INFECTIONS

Drugs effective against anaerobic bacteria are discussed citing experience with both older and newer compounds in treating some infections. Anaerobic organisms are frequently isolated with aerobic bacteria from many serious infections and the dilemma is, in which of these infections are the anaerobes, especially B. fragilis, the authentic pathogens? All of the chemotherapeutic agents, old and new, used in the treatment of anaerobic infections have one or more deficiencies. No single agent is consistently bactericidal against all anaerobic pathogens but it is not clear that it is mandatory for antibiotic treatment to inhibit all anaerobes isolated from any given infection. The first rank of older agents which are consistently useful are penicillin, clindamycin, and chloramphenicol. The newer antibiotics which are already known to be effective in treating anaerobic infections are cefoxitin, cefamandole, mezlocillin, and piperacillin. Because of their Gram-negative aerobic spectrum, these newer agents merit continuing evaluation since they may provide us with a choice of single agents for the treatment of serious polymicrobial infections. © 1979 The British Society for the Study of Infection.