Treatment of twelve burn wound infections and eight other serious infections with cefazolin and tobramycin: in vitro and in vivo evaluation.

20 patients with serious infections were treated with cefazolin and tobramycin for 9--64 days. Minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) values and minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC) values were determined for each of the 112 clinical bacterial isolates. The median cefazolin MIC/MBC was 1.56/12.5 micrograms/ml, and the median tobramycin MIC/MBC was 6.25/25.0 micrograms/ml for all organisms studied. Median cefazolin doses of 49.0 mg/kg/day gave median peak/trough serum levels of 43.0/11.0 micrograms/ml. Median tobramycin doses of 4.3 mg/kg/day gave median peak/trough serum levels of 5.0/1.4 micrograms/ml. Checkerboard studies revealed synergy with 65% of strains. Bacteriologic and clinical success was obtained in 17 of 20 patients.

Cefazolin treatment of bacterial infections. In vitro and in vivo evaluation.

Cefazolin sodium was used to treat 20 serious bacterial infections in 19 patients, 11 of whom were infected by coagulase-positive Staphylococci. Clinical and bacteriologic success were initially obtained in 15 patients with 16 infections. 2 additional patients were cured after surgery for removal of foreign bodies and a second course of the antibiotic. 1 asplenic patient had bacteremia and died 5 days after initiating therapy with negative blood cultures and multiple abscesses. 1 patient with endocarditis relapsed 19 months after treatment with 6 weeks of cefazolin and prolonged oral antibiotics. Calculated median, trough, free drug levels were 1.5--15.3 times the minimum inhibitory concentration for 27 of 29 pathogens.