Brittain D C
Health Science Center, State University of New York, Syracuse.
Med Clin North Am. 1987 Nov;71(6):1147-54. doi: 10.1016/s0025-7125(16)30802-1.
Erythromycin is the only macrolide antibiotic to have gained widespread use in the United States. Introduced in 1952, it rapidly gained a popularity that it enjoys to this day. Numerous other antimicrobial agents have been marketed since that time: Whole new classes of antibiotics, both natural and synthetic, have been discovered, studied, and released for general use. Many of these newer agents boast a broader spectrum of antimicrobial activity, yet erythromycin's place in the clinician's arsenal is unthreatened because erythromycin remains the drug of first choice for a number of pathogens against which the new drugs are inactive. It is one of the safest antibiotics available for use today and when used against susceptible organisms and in indicated clinical situations, its effectiveness is unquestioned.
红霉素是在美国得到广泛应用的唯一一种大环内酯类抗生素。它于1952年问世，迅速受到欢迎并一直流行至今。自那时起，许多其他抗菌药物已投放市场：全新类别的抗生素，包括天然的和合成的，都已被发现、研究并投入普遍使用。这些较新的药物中有许多具有更广泛的抗菌活性谱，但红霉素在临床医生的武器库中的地位并未受到威胁，因为对于许多新药物不起作用的病原体，红霉素仍然是首选药物。它是当今可用的最安全的抗生素之一，在针对易感生物体并在特定临床情况下使用时，其有效性是毋庸置疑的。
