[A national multicenter study of the in-vitro activity of piperacillin-tazobactam. The Spanish Piperacillin-Tazobactam Group].

The action of piperacillin-tazobactam on 4,137 of the 4,364 strains collected in a Spanish multicenter study involving 46 participating hospitals was studied. The samples were from the following: 41% urine, 18% exuded from wound abscesses, 13% respiratory, 9% blood, 3% peritoneal liquid, and the remainder from other various sources. The gram-negative bacteria included 2,778 strains from 13 genera: Escherichia (1,289), Pseudomonas (451), Proteus (230), Klebsiella (203), Haemophilus (172), Enterobacter (145), Acinetobacter (88), Salmonella (60), Bacteroides (57), Morganella (53), Serratia (46), Citrobacter (46), Stenotrophonomas (23) and Moraxella (21). The gram-positive bacteria were S. aureus (316), E. faecalis (239), S. epidermis (130), S. pneumoniae (115) and Clostridium spp. (12). The global susceptibility of the gram-negatives to piperacillin-tazobactam was 94%: E. coli 98%, P. aeruginosa 92%, and P. mirabilis, Morganella, K. pneumoniae, Serratia and Salmonella spp. all greater than 94%. The susceptibility of other bacteria was as follows: 91% Citrobacter, 77% E. cloacae, 42% A. baumannii, 61% S. maltophilia, 97% E. faecalis, 93% S. epidermidis, 100% M. catarrhalis, 99% H. influenzae and 100% anaerobic bacteria. The action on S. pneumoniae and S. aureus varied according to the susceptibility or lack there of to penicillin or methicillin. In comparison to other antibiotics (piperacillin, cefoxitin, cefotaxime, ceftazidime, cefepime, imipenem and ciprofloxacin), piperacillin-tazobactam was far better than piperacillin alone and better or similar to the others.