Metronidazole in the Treatment of Anaerobic Infection in Man

Abstract

In recent years there has been a growing awareness of the importance of B. fragilis as a cause of human infections, in particular abdominal sepsis and cerebral abscess (Gillespie and Guy 1956; Ingham et al. 1968; Pearson and Anderson 1970; Okubadejo et al. 1973). B. fragilis, in contrast to other anaerobic bacteria, is relatively resistant to penicillin and ampicillin, and in recent years an increasing proportion have been found to be resistant also to tetracycline. B. fragilis is invariably sensitive to chloramphenicol, clindamycin and lincomycin and the latter two antibiotics have been recommended for the treatment of these infections (Ingham et al. 1968; Kislak 1972; Bartlett et al. 1972). Recently metronidazole has been shown to possess a high degree of activity against B. fragilis, in vitro, with minimal bactericidal concentrations of 0.16 µg per ml to 2.5 µg per ml (Whelan and Hale 1973).