Antibiotic therapy for postcesarean endomyometritis

Puerperal uterine infection, or endomyometritis, occurs more commonly after cesarean section than after vaginal birth. With the rate of cesarean delivery almost 25% of all births in this country, such infection is relatively common. The classic therapy for postcesarean endomyometritis is the combination of clindamycin and an aminoglycoside, usually gentamicin or tobramycin. This regimen has requisite antimicrobial activity against the aerobes and anaerobes of the cervicovaginal flora that usually cause this illness. In the last decade, however, the availability of broad-spectrum beta-lactam antibiotics has enabled the clinician to combat postcesarean infection with single-agent antimicrobial chemotherapy, or monotherapy. "Higher-generation" cephalosporins such as cefoxitin, cefotetan, and moxalactam, as well as the semisynthetic penicillins ticarcillin, piperacillin, and mezlocillin, have all been used alone in the therapy for postpartum infection. The addition of a beta-lactamase inhibitor to this class of drugs now offers a further resource to the practitioner if beta-lactamase-mediated antibiotic resistance arises in the patient population being treated.