azlocillin and Cross-Infection

The authors wanted to verify if in clinical practice (Intensive Care Unit patients), the association of azlocillin with an aminoglycoside offers substantial advantages compared to use of azlocillin alone. Their results show that azlocillin alone is potent enough to be used in the treatment of severe infections.

Topics: Adult; Aged; Amikacin; Azlocillin; Bacterial Infections; Critical Care; Cross Infection; Drug Therapy, Combination; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Random Allocation

Over a two-month period, two distinct types of Pseudomonas aeruginosa resistant to ceftazidime and azlocillin were isolated from bronchial specimens of ITU patients who had been previously bronchoscoped. The source of the outbreak was probably a faulty contaminated bronchoscope washer-disinfector which had been purchased a year earlier but not properly maintained. This paper describes the outbreak, the identification and elimination of the source, and the steps taken to prevent recurrence. Several automated, closed washer-disinfectors had been bought by the hospital in response to health and safety concerns about glutaraldehyde disinfection toxicity, but the operation and maintenance of these machines had not been supervised. Several other washer-disinfectors were also found to be faulty. The potential hazards of automated endoscope washer-disinfectors and the importance of controlled professional maintenance, servicing and training is discussed.

Topics: Azlocillin; Bronchoscopes; Ceftazidime; Cross Infection; Disease Outbreaks; Disinfection; Drug Resistance, Multiple; Equipment Contamination; Humans; London; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; Pseudomonas Infections

The authors have followed the course of the immunological cellular and humoral parameters in 12 patients in the Intensive Care Unit at the University Polyclinic of Messina having grave infections of the respiratory apparatus, for which an antibiotic therapy with azlocillin, semisynthetic penicillin was carried out; all this with the aim of pointing out any possible interferences with the already precarious immune system in such patients. The results obtained seem to exclude any immunodepressing activity by the molecule.

Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Azlocillin; B-Lymphocytes; Critical Care; Cross Infection; Female; Humans; Immunity; Immunoglobulins; Lymphocyte Activation; Male; Middle Aged; Pseudomonas Infections; T-Lymphocytes

Transferable resistance to classical Cephalosporins emerged three years ago among Enterobacteriaceae simultaneously in several hospitals and was associated with resistance to other betalactam drugs, i.e. with a transmissible TEM-like betalactamase. A systematic survey of incidence of R plasmids in Proteus sp. lead, in two district PHLs, to demonstration of transferable Azlocillin resistance. This resistance was most frequently associated with that for Carbenicillin, but also strains susceptible to CAR but resistant to AZL have been isolated. Trimethoprim resistance was in this country first described by Schŏn, but, since then, it is now frequently found transferable in polyresistant strains from hospitals, resistant also to betalactam antibiotics, Gentamicin and other drugs.

Topics: Azlocillin; Cephalosporins; Cross Infection; Humans; Penicillin Resistance; R Factors; Trimethoprim

Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Azlocillin; Cephalosporins; Child; Child, Preschool; Cross Infection; Enterobacteriaceae; Humans; Microbial Sensitivity Tests; Middle Aged; Penicillins; Tobramycin