Moxalactam penetration into cerebrospinal fluid in patients with bacterial meningitis.

Penetration of moxalactam into the cerebrospinal fluid was studied in 11 patients with bacterial meningitis undergoing treatment with other antibiotics. Moxalactam at a dose of 20 mg/kg was administered as three 30- to 45- min infusions at 8-h intervals, once between days 2 and 4 and a second time between days 11 and 20 of treatment with the other antibiotics. Serum and cerebrospinal fluid were sampled 60, 90, or 120 min after the third moxalactam dose for measurement of the concentration of this drug by high-performance liquid chromatography. The concentration of moxalactam in cerebrospinal fluid ranged from 1.5 to 11 micrograms/ml, depending on the sampling time and the time elapsed since the onset of the disease. These concentrations in cerebrospinal fluid were equal to or higher than the minimum inhibitor concentrations for Neisseria meningitidis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae (including ampicillin-resistant strains), and most of the gram-negative bacilli except for Pseudomonas aeruginosa. These results show that moxalactam has good penetrability when the meninges are inflamed and that it might be considered in cases of bacterial meningitis when the susceptibility of the pathogen indicates its usefulness.