Susceptibility survey of piperacillin/tazobactam and some beta-lactam comparators in Italy

From September 1994 to March 1995 an Italian multicenter in vitro study to evaluate the susceptibility of piperacillin/tazobactam compared with that of imipenem, ceftazidime, ceftazidime, ceftriaxone, cefotaxime and ampicillin/sulbactam against aerobic bacterial pathogens isolated in 132 different hospitals, was undertaken. In total, 26,732 isolates were collected but only 25,266 aerobic bacteria were able to be evaluated (16,863 Gram-negative and 8,403 Gram-positive). Escherichia coli was the most frequent pathogen isolated (25.9%) followed by Staphylococcus aureus (14.9%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (13.9%), Enterococcus faecalis (8.2%) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (5.9%). Piperacillin/tazobactam had a general spectrum of activity (84.8% susceptible strains) comparable to imipenem (87.9%), and was distinctly greater than ceftazidime (71.1%).