Prospective randomized study of piperacillin/tazobactam therapy of surgically treated intra-abdominal infection. The Piperacillin/Tazobactam Intra-Abdominal Infection Study Group.

A randomized prospective trial was undertaken in adult patients with serious intra-abdominal infections to determine whether a new combination of antibiotic therapy could prove as efficacious as the combination that has been widely used in practice in the recent decade (clindamycin and gentamicin). Three hundred thirty-one patients were randomized in a 2:1 ratio, with the larger number of patients being treated parenterally with piperacillin and tazobactam. The results showed that both the clinical and microbiologic performance of the piperacillin/tazobactam combination was better than that of clindamycin and gentamicin. This clinical equivalence permits overall cost savings without compromising the existing quality of antimicrobial therapy for intra-abdominal infection.