Efficacy of imipenem/cilastatin in patients with severe bacterial infections.

In this study imipenem/cilastatin was used successfully to treat 21 patients with a variety of severe infections caused by Gram-positive and Gram-negative aerobic bacteria. Overall clinical cure was achieved in 18 of 21 patients. Fourteen of 16 infecting organisms were eradicated by imipenem. In spite of in-vitro susceptibility to imipenem before therapy two species of Pseudomonas (Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Ps. fluorescens) could not be eliminated in two patients. Resistance developed in the strain of Ps. aeruginosa during treatment of a patient with pneumonia for eight days. The pneumonia was considered to be clinically cured. The strain of Ps. fluorescens became resistant during therapy in a patient suffering from an acute exacerbation of severe chronic bronchitis in whom the antibiotic treatment had failed. Imipenem/cilastatin proved to be highly effective and well tolerated in this group of patients.