Aztreonam in the treatment of urinary tract infection

The possible advantages of the monobactam antibiotic aztreonam in the treatment of hospital-acquired urinary tract infection were assessed in a study comparing aztreonam (0.5 to 1 g twice daily or three times daily) to cefamandole (1 g three times daily) in 159 patients. Initial pathogens were eradicated in 91.7 percent of the patients of the aztreonam group who were treated three times daily, in 82.7 percent of the group treated twice daily, and in 78.3 percent of the patients receiving cefamandole. Reinfection and superinfection were most commonly caused by enterococci in the aztreonam groups and by Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the cefamandole group. In a second study, 35 patients infected with organisms resistant to other antibiotics were treated with aztreonam 1 to 6 g per day for eight days. The overall cure rates were 93 percent for Pseudomonas infections, 87.5 percent for Escherichia coli infections, and 100 percent for other pathogens.