The effect of antimicrobial therapy on mixed infections with Bacteroides species. Is eradication of the anaerobes important?

Antimicrobial agents were used alone or in combinations in order to explore their effect on mixed aerobic-anaerobic infections. Subcutaneous abscesses were induced in mice by single and mixed infections of Bacteroides fragilis, Bacteroides melaninogenicus, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, Streptococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The infected animals were treated for 5 days with spiramycin, gentamicin or metronidazole alone, or metronidazole combined with spiramycin or gentamicin. Animals were killed 5 days after inoculation and the bacterial contents of the abscesses determined. Infection induced by a single species of bacteria always responded to appropriate antimicrobial therapy. In infections caused by two species of organisms, however, therapy directed at either the Bacteroides sp. (with metronidazole) or the aerobes or facultative anaerobes (with spiramycin or gentamicin) was effective not only in significantly reducing the numbers of the target organism but also, in 13 of 24 instances, in reducing to a small extent the numbers of the other bacteria. Despite this phenomenon, in no instance did therapy with a single agent eliminate the infection and eradicate the untargeted organism. The combination of spiramycin and metronidazole increased the reduction in numbers of B. melaninogenicus in single-organism infections and of Bacteroides sp. in mixed infections with S. aureus and S. pyogenes. These findings support the need to aim treatment at all components of mixed infections.