Development of clinically important resistance to quinolones and other antibiotic groups

In a study conducted by the Paul Ehrlich Society in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), resistance patterns were registered over a period from 1975 to 1984. The results of this large multicentre study involving more than 35,000 strains demonstrated a relatively stable resistance pattern for most Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria against all antibiotic groups. Information on resistance to the new quinolones in FRG is still very limited. The only published results are from the University Hospital, Tübingen, FRG, which registered a slight decrease in the sensitivity of ofloxacin to Pseudomonas aeruginosa and the staphylococci. In clinical studies, resistance appeared in about 4-13% of antibiotic treatments but treatment failure was registered in only 30-80% of these cases.