[Evaluation of clinical efficacy of a cephem antibiotic, cefmetazole, in inflammatory infections of the upper respiratory tract].

We had reported the fundamental study on the utility of a new cephem antibiotic, cefmetazole (CMZ). On the basis of the results we administered CMZ to patients to investigate its clinical utility in this study. 1. CMZ was administered to 53 patients including 4 infants. They consisted of 30 cases of acute tonsillitis, 10 of peritonsillar abscess, 10 of laryngitis or pharyngitis, and 3 of sinusitis. 2. One of 2 g CMZ was administered to an adult patient except for l case and 0.5 g to an infant patient once or twice daily for at least 3 days. The method of administration was one shot intravenous injection, intravenous drip infusion or intramuscular injection. 3. The strict criteria for evaluating the efficacy of a drug were made and used for judging the efficacy of CMZ. 4. CMZ was clinically effective in 100% of patients with acute tonsillitis, 100% of those with peritonsillar abscess, 90% of those with laryngitis or pharyngitis, and 67% of those with sinusitis. 5. Bacteriologically, a single sort of bacterium was isolated in most cases of acute tonsillitis, laryngitis and pharyngitis and in the half of cases of peritonsillar abscess. Two and more sorts of bacteria were isolated in the other cases. The main bacteria isolated were beta-Streptococcus, S. pneumoniae and H. influenzae. Anaerobic bacteria, mostly Peptococcus spp. and Peptostreptococcus spp., were detected in peritonsillar abscess. 6. The clinical results agreed with the clinicobacteriological results. All the bacteria detected before treatment of CMZ disappeared. CMZ also acted effectively in cases in which H. influenzae was suspected to be a causative organism. 7. The present results of CMZ treatment were similar to those of cefazolin (CEZ) treatment published so far. 8. Thus, CMZ was confirmed fundamentally and clinically to be a very useful drug for infection of the upper respiratory tract.