[Use of antibacterial chemotherapy. A historical comparison].

The real breakthrough to successful antibacterial chemotherapy was caused by the development of sulfonamides and penicillin. Subsequently numerous other antibiotics were developed and successfully applied. Whilst both the percentage share as well as the resistance pattern with different bacterial strains has remained more or less stable in Europe as well as in the US over the past ten years, staphylococci, especially Staphylococcus epidermidis, appear to increase consistently. This fact can above all be seen with blood cultures. Within the Viennese clinical material, the staphylococcal share increased between 1984 and 1989 from 40 to 48%, with material from intensive care units from 42 to 60% and at the burn care unit up to almost 90% with S. epidermidis counting for the largest share. The resistance pattern has hardly changed. The lethality of patients with staphylococcal sepsis only depended on the timing of treatment: even with targeted treatment starting within two days from onset of clinical symptoms we lost 29%, when therapy was started later, lethality increased to 50%, and without treatment to 90%. Only fast diagnosis can help to fully utilize the benefits offered by antibacterial chemotherapy.