[Antimicrobial activity of sulbactam/cefoperazone. Comparison with other new cephems]

Antimicrobial activities of sulbactam/cefoperazone (SBT/CPZ) against 50 fresh clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Citrobacter freundii, Enterobacter spp., Serratia marcescens, Proteus mirabilis, Proteus vulgaris and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were compared to those of CPZ, Cefotiam (CTM), Cefotaxime (CTX) and Latamoxef (LMOX). Minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC's) of SBT and CPZ mixed in a ratio of 1:1 were determined by the dilution method using Mueller-Hinton agar and expressed by absolute concentrations of CPZ. Antimicrobial activities of SBT/CPZ against principally penicillinase (PCase) producing bacteria, i.e., S. aureus, E. coli, K. pneumoniae, P. mirabilis, were superior to those of CPZ alone. The presence of SBT in concentrations around 0.39 approximately 1.56 micrograms/ml clearly enhanced CPZ's antimicrobial activities against these PCase producing strains. The synergistic antimicrobial effects of SBT in combination with CPZ were less pronounced against principally cephalosporinase (CEPase) producing bacteria, i.e., C. freundii, Enterobacter spp., S. marcescens, P. vulgaris, and P. aeruginosa, and exerted with SBT at concentrations around 3.13 approximately 12.5 micrograms/ml. Comparative antimicrobial activities indicated by MIC80's of tested agents showed that SBT/CPZ had more stable activities against bacteria ranging from Gram-positive to Gram-negative bacteria than CTM, CTX and LMOX. MIC's of SBT/CPZ were higher than 25 micrograms/ml against 8% of S. aureus, 18% of C. freundii, 10% of Enterobacter spp., 26% of S. marcescens, 2% of P. vulgaris, and 18% of P. aeruginosa. These resistant strains against which the addition of SBT showed no synergism, may possess other mechanism of resistance than beta-lactamase production. It is concluded that the presence of CPZ resistant strains is an actual current problem and not an imaginary future problem, and that the number of resistant strains against other new cephems which have different chemical structure from CPZ is increasing. When these present bacteriological environments are considered, the appearance of SBT/CPZ in the clinical practice is timely and meaningful.