Treatment of serious obstetric and gynecologic infections with cefoxitin

In order to evaluate the efficacy of cefoxitin, 25 patients with serious pelvic infections admitted to a community hospital were treated with the drug. Twenty-one patients (84%) responded to this therapy. Three of the four failures (75%) had a pelvic abscess. Resistant organisms included Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and enterococci. The adverse reactions encountered were due to localized phlebitis, which occurred in three patients (12%). The study demonstrated that cefoxitin was successful as a single agent in the treatment of serious soft-tissue pelvic infections.