COMPARISON OF TOPICAL CIPROFLOXACIN TO CONVENTIONAL ANTIBIOTIC-THERAPY IN THE TREATMENT OF EXPERIMENTAL PSEUDOMONAS-AERUGINOSA KERATITIS

We evaluated the efficacy of topical ciprofloxacin (3.0 mg/ml) in the treatment of experimental Pseudomonas aeruginosa keratitis in 60 rabbi ts. We compared ciprofloxacin treatment with double drug therapy consi sting of tobramycin (13.6 mg/ml) plus polymyxin B (25,000 U/ml) or car benicillin (6 mg/L). Two strains of P. aeruginosa were used. One was a strain well characterized for use in experimental Pseudomonas keratit is (ATCC organism 27853); the second was an organism from a patient wi th a Pseudomonas corneal ulcer. Rabbits were treated for 16 h, after w hich the corneas were excised, homogenized, and plated serially for re sidual colony-forming units. Both organisms responded significantly be tter to topical off-the-shelf ciprofloxacin than to therapy with two c onventional antipseudomonal fortified antibiotic drugs (p less-than-or -equal-to 0.0001).