A comparison of parenteral sulbactam/ampicillin versus clindamycin/gentamicin in the treatment of pelvic inflammatory disease.

60 hospitalized patients with pelvic inflammatory disease entered a randomised study to compare the therapeutic efficacy and tolerability of parenteral sulbactam/ampicillin with that of clindamycin/gentamicin. All 49 pathogens isolated at entry from 21 evaluable patients in the sulbactam/ampicillin group were eradicated. 34 out of 35 pathogens isolated from 18 evaluable patients in the clindamycin/gentamicin group were eradicated. All pathogens resistant to ampicillin in vitro were eradicated. The bacteriological, clinical and overall responses for the sulbactam/ampicillin group were 100%, 85.7% and 85.7%, respectively, compared with 97.1%, 94.4% and 94.4%, respectively, for the clindamycin/gentamicin group. The sulbactam/ampicillin combination was well tolerated.