[Current antimicrobial drugs].

In the past few years several new antibiotics became available, but no major inventions as to new treatment strategies were made. There are a few new broad-spectrum antibiotics for the intravenous route like piperacillin-tazobactam, the carbapenem meropenem and the fourth-generation cephalosporins. cefepime and cefpirome. New oral antibiotics include the third-generation cephalosporins ceftibuten, cefetamet and cefpodoxime and the macrolides clarithromycin and azithromycin. The last two have the great advantage of less frequent dosing and fewer side effects than erythromycin. Of the two new quinolones, sparfloxacin and trovafloxacin, trovafloxacin is the more promising. In the treatment of Gram-positive infections the glycopeptide teicoplanin became available and the combined derivatives quinupristin-dalfopristin may prove valuable in the future.