[Therapeutic potential of ofloxacin in hospital medicine. A French multicenter study].

Bacteriological studies were carried out on samples taken from 1,824 patients in 12 departments of internal medicine (6 University Hospital Departments and 6 Regional Hospital Departments), over a period of six weeks. Four hundred and twenty-two samples were positive on culture. These included 189 urine samples, 81 samples from the respiratory tract and 71 blood samples for culture. Four hundred and forty-four bacterial strains were isolated (including 290 Gram- organisms, 146 Gram+ organisms, 6 intracellular and 2 anaerobic organisms) 427 of which were tested vis a vis ofloxacin. Seventy-five per cent of identified bacteria were susceptible to ofloxacin including 88% Gram- bacteria, 79% staphylococci and 17.5% streptococci. Bacteria resistant to ofloxacin were responsible for 16 out of 183 of infections originating in the community and 29 out of 116 of infections of nosocomial origin. Enterobacterial strains were tested vis a vis nalidixic acid and staphylococcal strains vis a vis oxacillin: 9 of the 30 strains resistant to nalidixic acid were susceptible to ofloxacin, 4 of the 18 strains resistant to oxacillin were susceptible to ofloxacin. These data confirm the therapeutic potential of ofloxacin in the treatment of common infections encountered in hospital medicine.