[PK/PD profile and post-marketing surveillance of levofloxacin]

Ten years after introduction in therapeutic handbook, levofloxacin still plays a main role in treating bacterial infections. In particular, the deeper knowledge of kinetic-dynamic characteristics has allowed to highlight that high dosage approach in short term therapy might reveal as extremely interesting in a setting of critical patients. In addition, the good tissue diffusion, documented by pharmacokinetic studies performed in different districts, including the ones protected by anatomic barriers, lets to assume a good efficacy in the treatment of infection localized in deep tissues, as observed in different animal models, and successively confirmed by clinical studies. Use of levofloxacin for infections localized at particular body sites, such as bones and joints, has allowed to evidence a good tolerability profile in the long term tolerability, as well.