[Effectiveness of pefloxacin in the surgical clinic]

Pefloxacin (Rhone-Poulenc, France) was used prophylactically and therapeutically in 8 and 21 surgical inpatients respectively. The majority of the Enterobacteriaceae isolates were susceptible to pefloxacin (91 to 100 per cent). The isolates of Acinetobacter spp. and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were less susceptible (77 and 33.3 per cent respectively). The isolates of Staphylococcus aureus and S. epidermidis were mainly susceptible to the drug. The high antimicrobial activity of pefloxacin used therapeutically well correlated with the favourable time course of the main disease. When pefloxacin was used prophylactically the results were positive in all the cases. The drug tolerance in the majority of the cases was good. Only 2 patients developed allergic reactions as multiple minipunctate rash. After discontinuation of the drug use and short-term course of the desensitization the clinical sings of the allergic reactions disappeared in 3 days.