The in vivo efficacy of ciprofloxacin or pefloxacin alone or in combination with fosfomycin was evaluated in experimental aortic valve endocarditis induced in 133 rabbits by a multidrug-susceptible or multidrugresistant strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Therapy was initiated early (12 h after infection), when bacterial counts in aortic valve vegetations were relatively low, or late (48 h after infection), when vegetations contained a larger inoculum. Antibiotics were administered as a continuous 24-h intravenous infusion. Mean steady-state levels of ciprofloxacin (64 mg/kg), pefloxacin (64 mg/kg), and fosfomycin (300 mg/kg) in serum were 2.5, 4.2, and 63.9 mg/liter, respectively. For the multidrug-susceptible strain, all regimens except pefloxacin alone significantly reduced the number of CFU per gram of vegetation versus controls, whether treatment was performed early or late. For the multidrug-resistant strain, none of the regimens showed differences from untreated controls, except ciprofloxacin-fosfomycin, which significantly reduced bacterial counts in vegetations compared with controls when therapy was begun early (4.1 ؎ 1.1 log 10 CFU/g of vegetation; P < 0.001 versus the control). These data suggest that combination of fosfomycin with ciprofloxacin or pefloxacin is more effective than ciprofloxacin or pefloxacin alone for the therapy of severe infections caused by multidrugsusceptible P. aeruginosa.Severe infections caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa are a major problem in hospitalized patients who often fail to respond to medical therapy alone (2, 23). Fluoroquinolones are frequently used in the treatment of severe gram-negative infectious diseases, and ciprofloxacin and pefloxacin have proved effective against certain P. aeruginosa infections (10). However, clinical failures have occurred because of the development of resistance during therapy (22, 23) and there has also been a worldwide emergence of P. aeruginosa strains resistant to multiple older antimicrobial agents. These events indicate a need for experimental animal studies with newer antipseudomonal regimens. Antimicrobial combinations have been proposed as a means of increasing bactericidal activity in vivo, and some data suggest a possible synergy of fluoroquinolones with other antimicrobial agents (5,14,20). Moreover, fosfomycin, a drug with remarkable activity against P. aeruginosa, has shown a synergistic bactericidal effect in vitro against multidrug-resistant P. aeruginosa when combined with ciprofloxacin (12,20).The present study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of ciprofloxacin or pefloxacin alone versus association with fosfomycin. Experiments were conducted with a rabbit model of aortic valve endocarditis induced by a multidrug-susceptible or multidrug-resistant strain of P. aeruginosa.
MATERIALS AND METHODSMicroorganisms. Two clinical strains of P. aeruginosa isolated from the blood of burn unit patients with septicemia were found to be susceptible (PA1) or resistant (PA2) to multiple antibiotics. Both proved resistant to rabbit s...