IN-VITRO TESTING OF ANTIBIOTICS

To enhance knowledge in the area of in vitro testing of antibiotics an d to understand the limitations of available methods for susceptibilit y testing, we conducted a MEDLINE literature search in the English lan guage to accumulate relevant articles. Headings searched included micr obial sensitivity tests; Kirby-Bauer; laboratory tests; antiinfective agents; antibiotics, combined; microbiological techniques; blood bacte ricidal assay; and pharmacology, clinical. The management of patients with serious life;threatening infections can be complicated by recent changes in organism nomenclature, newly marketed antibiotics, and new isolation and sensitivity testing methods. With the addition of formul ary constraints, many problems and controversies arise regarding inter pretation of antibiotic sensitivity results. Comprehensive care for in fected patients requires assessment of current antibiotic therapy and options for alternative therapy. By applying pharmacodynamic and pharm acokinetic knowledge to known limits of in vitro testing results, the clinician is able to select the most efficient antibiotic or antibioti c combination.