cefamandole and Biliary-Tract-Diseases

A prospective, randomized study was conducted on 219 surgical patients with biliary tract disease. There were 100 patients undergoing elective biliary surgery, and 119 others with suspected biliary sepsis who were assigned to Prophylactic or Therapeutic clinical categories, then randomized into ampicillin or cefamandole treatment groups. Organisms resistant to the antibiotics given were found less often among patients in the cefamandole groups than among those in the ampicillin groups. No postoperative wound or intra-abdominal sepsis (IAS) occurred in the Prophylactic category. In the Therapeutic category there were two cases (3.2%) of wound and IAS in the ampicillin group and one case (1.8%) of wound infection in the cefamandole group. Overall, cefamandole showed superior coverage in vitro against the biliary flora, but both drugs were equally effective in maintaining a low incidence of postoperative sepsis as well as a minimal number of febrile or total hospital days. The authors suggest that the choice of antimicrobials may not be as critical as effective surgical management in the prevention of septic complications following biliary tract surgery.

Topics: Adult; Aged; Ampicillin; Bile; Biliary Tract Diseases; Cefamandole; Clinical Trials as Topic; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Prospective Studies; Random Allocation; Surgical Wound Infection

Intraoperative biliary cefamandole concentrations were determined in 16 patients with hepatobiliary pathology. These included seven patients with cholelithiasis, five with acute cholecystitis, two with recurrent ascending cholangitis, and two with liver abscesses. Bile collected 0.5 to 2.5 h after the last antibiotic dose of 1 g administered by intravenous drip showed therapeutically effective concentrations of cefamandole in 84% (11 of 13) of gall bladder samples with a median of 220 micrograms/ml (range, 1.6 to 1,400), and in 100% (13 of 13) of common bile duct samples with a median of 1,100 micrograms/ml (range, 9.0 to greater than 2,000). Only with complete aseptic cystic duct obstruction was cefamandole undetectable in gall bladder bile.

Topics: Alkaline Phosphatase; Bile; Biliary Tract Diseases; Cefamandole; Cephalosporins; Humans; Liver Diseases