Therapy of Klebsiella pneumoniae septicaemia in neutropenic rats.

The efficacy of intramuscular gentamicin, sisomicin, tobramycin and amikacin was evaluated in the antimicrobial therapy of septicaemia due to Klebsiella pneumoniae in an experimental model of infection in rats rendered neutropenic by cyclophosphamide. Animals were injected with a LD50 of micro-organisms and 4 hours later treated with a therapeutic i.m. dose of the antibiotics. In animals sacrificed at 0.5, 1 and 4 hours after antibiotic treatment, blood levels of aminoglycosides, bactericidal power of serum and quantitative cultures of peritoneal fluid and blood showed that the four antibiotics tested were effective in drastically reducing the number of bacteria in blood and in the peritoneum, concurrently with the bactericidal power of the serum, though with sisomicin preceding in order of activity gentamicin, amikacin and tobramycin.