[Clinical evaluation of cefotiam therapy in children (author's transl)]

Cefotiam (CTM) was evaluated for its safety and efficacy in children. Twenty-six patients were treated with 40 to 200 mg/kg per day of CTM by intravenous administrations. The diagnosis of the patients were acute pharyngitis (2), acute bronchitis (1), pneumonia (4), empyema (2), urinary tract infection (2), typhoid fever (1), acute enterocolitis (2), partially-treated purulent meningitis (1), and suspected septicemia in neuroblastoma (1); and the remaining ten patients were considered to have nonbacterial infections. The pathogens recovered were Streptococcus pyogenes (1), Streptococcus pneumoniae (1), Staphylococcus aureus (4), Haemophilus influenzae (4), Escherichia coli (1), enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (1), Salmonella typhi (1), and Campylobacter jejuni (1). All but two patients of bacterial infections were cured after the CTM therapy, and the rate of efficacy was 87.5%. Diarrhea (3), urticaria (1), transient elevation of GOT and GPT (1), and transient eosinophilia (3) were found to be associated with the CTM therapy. However, no severe adverse reactions were encountered. Half life of the serum CTM level was 0.93 +/- 0.13 hours, and excretion into the urine was rapid. CSF concentration obtained 1 hour after an intravenous injection of 21 mg/kg of CTM in a case with inflamed meninges was 1.5 mcg/ml, and the CSF/serum ratio was 9.0%. From these data, CTM appears to be a safe and effective antibiotic when used in children with susceptible bacterial infections.