[Clinical evaluation of cefotetan in pediatrics].

Cefotetan (CTT), a new cephamycin antibiotic having a long serum half-life (2.93 +/- 0.78 hours), was evaluated for its safety and efficacy in children. Twenty-four patients were treated with a daily dose of 30 to 100 mg/kg of CTT by intravenous administrations mostly in 2 divided doses. The diagnoses of the effective patients were acute bronchitis (5), pneumonia (4), acute urinary tract infections (4), acute enterocolitis (2), presumed septicemia (1), and phlegmon (1); and the effectiveness was 77.3%. The pathogens recovered from these patients were S. pneumoniae (1), H. influenzae (3), S. marcescens (1), E. coli (2), and K. oxytoca (1). CTT was not effective in staphylococcal pneumonia and empyema (each 1 case), in Pseudomonas pneumonia (2), and in a case of brain abscess and mastoiditis of unknown etiology. Diarrhea (2), and transient elevations of the serum GOT, GPT, and LDH (1) were associated with the CTT therapy, but no severe adverse reaction was encountered. The CSF level of CTT seemed to be lower among several new cephalosporins. From the present study, CTT appears to be a safe and effective antibiotic when used in children with susceptible bacterial infections. A twice-a-day schedule was recommended from its long serum half-life.