[Treatment of severe infections in hematologic malignancies with piperacillin sodium]

Combination antibiotic therapies using piperacillin (PIPC) were evaluated in 60 episodes of severe infections in 38 neutropenic patients with hematologic malignancies. 1. The overall efficacy rate was 46.7%. Efficacy rates were 30% in patients with pneumonia, 60% in patients with sepsis and 50% in patients with suspected sepsis in which causative organisms were not identified. 2. Eradication rates were 44.4% for Gram-negative bacilli, 50% for Pseudomonas aeruginosa and 22.2% for Gram-positive cocci. 3. Efficacy rates were 33.3% in patients with initial count of neutrophil less than 100/microliters, 60% in patients with those 100 to 500/microliters and 66.7% in patients with those higher than 500/microliters. Initial neutrophil counts correlated well with efficacies of PIPC on severe infection in patients with hematologic malignancies. 4. Mild increases of transaminase were observed in 2 cases. From these results it is concluded that PIPC is one of the most important antibiotics in the treatment of severe infections in neutropenic patients with hematologic malignancies.