Treatment of chronic destructive pneumonia with cephalosporins, penicillin and metronidazole.

Three hundred and ten patients with chronic destructive pneumonia (CDP), a necrotizing pneumonia probably caused by aerobic and anaerobic bacterial synergism, were treated with cephalosporins (80 of these with cephalosporins, penicillin and metronidazole). The reasons for selecting these drugs to treat CDP are given and evidence is presented which suggests that the combination of cephalosporins, penicillin and metronidazole is more effective therapy for CDP than cephalosporins alone. This finding supports the thesis that anaerobes are implicated in the aetiology of CDP.