ACTIVITY OF TICARCILLIN-CLAVULANIC ACID AGAINST GRAM-NEGATIVE NOSOCOMIAL ISOLATES

A global problem, nosocomial infections are especially worrisome in de veloping countries because of the lack of optimal infection control pr actices. The bacteria isolated from these infections are relatively mo re resistant to antimicrobial agents than are organisms acquired in th e community. Plasmid-mediated resistance is the most frequent and impo rtant characteristic. Because ticarcillin/clavulanic acid (T/C) posses ses the antimicrobial activity of each drug component as well as the s ynergistic action of clavulanic acid used as a competitive beta-lactam ase inhibitor, we determined the in vitro activity of this combination antimicrobial against 962 recently isolated nosocomial gramnegative b acteria. T/C demonstrated significantly more inhibitory activity than ticarcillin against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and almost all Enterobacter iaceae tested. The activity was compared with that of other commercial ly available combinations of penicillins (ampicillin and amoxicillin) and beta-lactamase inhibitors (clavulanic acid and sulbactam), in addi tion to other drugs commonly employed in clinical practice.