[Role of chloramphenicol in current clinical practice]

Chloramphenicol is an antibiotic with a broad spectrum of action and excellent tissue penetration. It had been widely used in clinical practice until the 1970s, but due to its potential myelotoxicity, it was gradually replaced by newly introduced antibiotics in the following years. The aim of the study was to find out to what extent and with what experience it is currently used in the Czech Republic.

A questionnaire survey was conducted in July and August 2022. The heads of all inpatient infectious diseases departments, hospital infectious diseases specialists and consulting microbiologists from antibiotic centers in large teaching hospitals without an infectious diseases department were asked to fill out the questionnaire.

Thirty-five out of 39 hospitals contacted took part in the study, a response rate of 90 %. Chloramphenicol is used in 37 % of participating hospitals, with a frequency of up to 10 patients treated per year. The most common indications are brain abscesses, purulent meningitis, intra-abdominal, pelvic and lung abscesses, and polymicrobial infections with anaerobes. Chloramphenicol is almost always administered as an alternative antibiotic because of polyvalent allergy, bacterial resistance, and failure of previous treatment. Sixty-six percent of respondents described the effect as reliable or partially reliable, 34 % did not rate the effect. Fifty-two percent of respondents considered a dose of 8-9 g to be the maximum dose for an adult patient. In practice, 60 % of respondents did not encounter or could not assess the myelotoxic effects of chloramphenicol, 37 % observed reversible bone marrow suppression at least once, and only one respondent encountered aplastic anemia once.

Unfortunately, chloramphenicol is currently used in less than half of hospitals in the Czech Republic. Because of its unique properties, it still has a place in today's anti-infective treatment. When properly indicated and after weighing the benefits and risks, it can be a suitable and sometimes life-saving alternative.