Treatment of surgical infections with a modern quinolone: therapy of soft tissue infections and pneumonia with ofloxacin.

A randomized, open, prospective study including 45 patients with either soft tissue infections (29 cases) or pneumonia (15 cases) after surgical intervention and one case having both indications was carried out with ofloxacin. The standard dose was 200 mg ofloxacin b. i. d. In most cases, clinical symptoms, such as fever, rubor, swelling and pain in soft tissue infections, as well as fever, dyspnoea, physical and radiological signs for pneumonia, subsided within two to seven days. Laboratory data (blood analyses, liver enzymes) remained in the normal range. The overall tolerability was good. Bacteriological controls have proven that ofloxacin is able to eradicate a broad range of pathogens, including persister pathogens and also certain bacteria like Clostridium perfringens and Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae. In our study, Streptococcus faecalis was of intermediate sensitivity in one case and resistant in another. Ofloxacin has proven to be effective in soft tissue infections and pneumonia after surgical intervention.