Prospective randomized study of piperacillin/tazobactam therapy of surgically treated intra-abdominal infection. The Piperacillin/Tazobactam Intra-Abdominal Infection Study Group.

Author(s): Polk HC Jr, Fink MP, Laverdiere M, Wilson SE, Garber GE, Barie PS, Hebert JC, Cheadle WG

Affiliation(s): University of Louisville School of Medicine, Kentucky.

Publication date & source: 1993-09, Am Surg., 59(9):598-605.

Publication type: Clinical Trial; Clinical Trial, Phase III; Multicenter Study; Randomized Controlled Trial

A randomized prospective trial was undertaken in adult patients with serious intra-abdominal infections to determine whether a new combination of antibiotic therapy could prove as efficacious as the combination that has been widely used in practice in the recent decade (clindamycin and gentamicin). Three hundred thirty-one patients were randomized in a 2:1 ratio, with the larger number of patients being treated parenterally with piperacillin and tazobactam. The results showed that both the clinical and microbiologic performance of the piperacillin/tazobactam combination was better than that of clindamycin and gentamicin. This clinical equivalence permits overall cost savings without compromising the existing quality of antimicrobial therapy for intra-abdominal infection.