Comparative study of cefoperazone and amikacin

A comparative study of cefoperazone and amikacin in severe surgical infections was conducted with 60 patients equally allocated to two groups. The daily dosage of cefoperazone ranged from 2 to 4 gm in two equally divided doses, and the daily dosage of amikacin ranged from 900 to 1,000 mg in two equally divided doses. All patients were given antibiotics for five to ten days. With cefoperazone, there were satisfactory clinical responses in 83% (29/35) of the infections; with amikacin, 74% (23/31). Cefoperazone was more effective than amikacin in biliary tract infections. On bacteriological examination, 7.5% of the organisms isolated were resistant to cefoperazone and 10% to amikacin. In mixed infections, cefoperazone and amikacin had failure rates of 29% and 36%, respectively. Further trials are needed to define the role of cefoperazone in anaerobic and in mixed infections.