[Oral ciprofloxacin therapy in juvenile patients with cystic fibrosis--results of a prospective pilot study]. / Orale Ciprofloxacin-Therapie bei juvenilen Patienten mit zystischer Fibrose--Ergebnisse einer prospektiven Pilotstudie.

Efficacy and safety of oral ciprofloxacin were studied in a prospective study at three cystic fibrosis centres, covering 24 in-patients suffering from cystic fibrosis and acute bronchopulmonary exacerbation. The patients were between 10 and 17 years of age. Pseudomonas infection was present in 75% of these patients. Despite frequent persistence of the pathogens, clinical improvement was noted in 75% of the treated children. A definite increase of the average MIC was not seen in 20 cases of persisting strains. No serious side effects occurred during the 14-day oral treatment course. Ciprofloxacin is a useful alternative to conventional parenteral treatment with antibiotics in patients suffering from cystic fibrosis and infections of the airways.

[Principles of modern antibiotic therapy in the general practice and clinic. Discussion of the contribution by Walter Siegenthaler and Gertrude Siegenthaler-Zuber published in Z. gesamte inn. Med. 42 (1987) 614-618]. / Grundsätze moderner Antibiotikatherapie in Praxis und Klinik. Diskussion zur Arbeit von Walter Siegenthaler und Gertrud Siegenthaler-Zuber erschienen in Z. gesamte inn. Med. 42 (1987) 614-618.

W. Siegenthaler's and G. Siegenthaler-Zuber's opinion, according to which in the majority of infections in practice an etiological (microbiological) diagnosis may be renounced and the guiding slogan "before therapy the gods have placed the diagnosis" should be relativized for the situation in the practice in contrast to the situation in the clinic, is opposed. Microbiological findings represent an unrenouncable basis for a rational antimicrobial chemotherapy in practice and clinic. In the individual case this does not exclude a calculated chemotherapy on account of a clinical and microbiological tentative diagnosis made by the physician in charge. But at the latest when the empiric therapy fails an efficient microbiologic diagnostics must be at our disposal.