Clinical Evaluation of Ciprofloxacin Intravenous Preparation

Abstract

The most common site of bacteria infection in humans is the urinary tract. For nosocomial infections it is the catheterized urinary tract. Compromised immune responses in hospitalized patients contribute to the difficulties encountered in treating their infections. In these patients, administration of intravenous antibiotic is usually the best treatment option available. The use of specific antibiotic therapy, according to sensitivity patterns in the particular environment is the base for cost- effective therapeutic measures used to safely treat moderate to severe infections and simultaneously prevent emergence of resistant strains in that environment. This study aimed at identifying the organisms causing bacterial urinary tract and soft tissue infection in hospitalized patients at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital and assessed the efficacy and tolerability of treatment with intravenous administered ciprofloxacin.
58 Patients (37 males, 21 females aged 19 to 76 years) participated in this open- labeled uncontrolled descriptive trial. The spectrum of organisms identified included an even mixture of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria with staphylococcus aureus (37.9%) and pseudomonas aeruginosa (27.6%) being the most commonly occurring. 77.5% of the organisms were hospital-acquired with possible multiple drug resistance. Complete eradication of infection was achieved in 72.4% after 5 days of intravenous drug treatment. 14 days post treatment complete eradication rate was the same as success rate at 72.4%. On exclusion of pseudomonas aeruginosa infections, this percentage improved to 100% of treated patients In patients with complicated UTI, significant reduction of colony count occurred in 22.2% and complete eradication in 66.8%. These observations suggest that continuation of drug treatment beyond 5 days is necessary in complicated UTI or where pseudomonas aeruginosa is the infective organism. Adverse events were low at 1.7% indicating a good tolerability profile.
We conclude that intravenous ciprofloxacin preparation is still efficacious and safe in the empirical treatment of bacterial urinary tract and soft tissue infections in the hospital setting


Keywords: Infection, Urinary tract, Soft tissue, complete eradication, efficacious.

NQJHM Vol. 14 (2) 2004: pp. 185-188