Susceptibility profiles of potential aerobic and anaerobic pathogens isolated from hysterectomy patients.

A total of 1140 aerobic and anaerobic isolates were recovered from cultures of specimens from the reproductive tracts of 435 uninfected patients who underwent elective hysterectomy. Standard minimum inhibitory concentration susceptibility studies were performed on these isolates to 13 newer penicillins, cephalosporins, and some traditional antimicrobial agents. These data were generated to evaluate the in vitro efficacy of these antibiotics for potential use in prophylaxis or as a single agent for treatment of polymicrobial infections of the female pelvis. The minimum inhibitory concentration data for each antibiotic against 16 genera of aerobic and nine genera of anaerobic bacteria were determined and were used to compare the in vitro antimicrobial activity of newer antibiotics to that of the more traditional antibiotics. Of the antimicrobial agents tested, piperacillin had the highest in vitro activity against these isolates of any antibiotic tested.