Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Comparative Study Clinical Trial
General microbiology and in vitro susceptibility of anaerobes isolated from complicated skin and skin-structure infections in patients enrolled in a comparative trial of ertapenem versus piperacillin-tazobactam.
In a recently completed study of once-a-day ertapenem versus piperacillin-tazobactam every 6 h in the treatment of complicated skin and skin-structure infections, 540 patients were randomized in a 1rcolon;1 ratio and assigned to 1 of 2 strata: those with a complicating underlying disease or all others. The most common infections in the study were deep soft-tissue abscess (18.9%), followed by diabetic lower extremity infection (18.1%); 7.0% of these were perineal cellulitis/abscess. ⋯ Of the 141 anaerobes tested for susceptibility, 97.2% were susceptible to ertapenem and 97.9% to piperacillin-tazobactam. Ertapenem had excellent in vitro activity against the most common aerobic pathogens and almost all anaerobes recovered from patients with infections of the skin and skin structures.