A MULTICENTER STUDY OF THE IN-VITRO ACTIVITY OF CEFOTAXIME, CEFUROXIME, CEFTAZIDIME, OFLOXACIN AND CIPROFLOXACIN AGAINST BLOOD AND URINARY PATHOGENS

The in-vitro susceptibilities of aerobic bacteria isolated from 1804 b lood and 4529 urine specimens collected at nine hospitals in the UK we re examined. An agar dilution method was used to determine the MICs of each isolate to three cephalosporins, cefotaxime, cefuroxime and ceft azidime, and to two fluoro-quinolones, ofloxacin and ciprofloxacin. Se nsitivities were then calculated using British Society for Antimicrobi al Chemotherapy recommended breakpoints. Of the cephalosporins tested cefotaxime was the most active against the Enterobacteriaceae. All the systemic staphylococcus isolates collected were sensitive to both cef otaxime and cefuroxime. As expected: ceftazidime was the only cephalos porin active against the Pseudomonas isolates. Both quinolones were hi ghly active against the Enterobacteriaceae and Pseudomonas spp. They a lso demonstrated good Gram-positive activity, particularly against Sta phylococcus aureus and Enterococcus spp.