Comparative in vitro activity of netilmicin, amikacin, tobramycin and sisomicin against gentamicin highly-resistant enterobacteriaceae.

Netilmicin was compared with sisomicin, tobramycin and amikacin against 65 recent clinical enterobacterial isolates found to be highly resistant to gentamicin (MIC larger than or equal to 80 microgram/ml). Netilmicin showed a high activity against 20 out of 65 strains tested. Most of the sensitive strains (60%) to netilmicin required a concentration of gentamicin equal or lower than 160 microgram/ml for inhibition. Amikacin proved to be extremely effective in all the organisms tested. Tobramycin was consistently less active than either netilmicin or amikacin and the same was the case with sisomicin. The MIC was determined in both solid and liquid media for 24 strains. Depending upon which aminoglycoside was used, we found that 10-30% of the enterobacteriaceae exhibited a twofold diminution of MIC when tested in broth as compared to agar, while the greater proportion of strains was characterized by a higher MIC tested in broth as compared to agar.