[Treatment of septicemia with latamoxef. Multicentric study of 60 cases]

Sixty patients including forty two males and eighteen females, age range: 18-87 years, received antibacterial single drug treatment with latamoxef for septicemia. Forty nine patients had underlying conditions including multiple trauma, neoplasm, cardiovascular, metabolic and respiratory tract diseases. Causative pathogens were isolated in all cases. The predominant isolates were E. coli (thirty), Klebsiella pneumoniae (tent) and Enterobacter (seven). A single organism was isolated in fifty seven cases; in the other three cases two organisms were isolated from blood cultures. Mean daily dosage was 46.6 +/- 6.1 mg . kg-1 (range: 14-113 mg . kg-1). In the majority of cases (fifty two) dosage was 3 g . d-1 or less; in thirty cases it was no higher than 2 g . d-1. Duration of therapy ranged from six to thirty eight days. Serum titer was measured in many cases and latamoxef blood levels were assayed in nine patients. A satisfactory clinical response was achieved in fifty eight cases and fifty eight bacteriological cures were also obtained. There was no statistically significant difference in therapeutic response between the 2 g and 3 g daily dosage groups. Tolerance was very good; untoward effects were few and required drug discontinuation in one case only.