Clinical profile of patients treated with cefepime/tazobactam: A new -lactam/ -lactamase inhibitor combination

Objectives: Cefepime/tazobactam is a new -lactam/ -lactamase inhibitor combination licensed for clinical use byDrugs Controller General of India. Aim of our study was to analyze the clinical efficacy and safety of cefepime/tazobactamin patients with sepsis. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first published clinical study on this drug.Materials and methods: A retrospective observational study on the efficacy and safety of cefepime/tazobactam wasconducted at a tertiary care hospital, South India. Patients who had a clear source of infection, having a single organismas the causative agent and being treated with cefepime/tazobactam alone were analyzed for efficacy and those caseswho had a clear source of infection but either had multiple organism grown or cultures being negative or those patientswho received a combination of antibiotics were analyzed for the safety analysis.Results: Thirty two patients satisfied our study criteria. All 15 patients in the efficacy group (nine with ventilator associatedpneumonia, three tracheitis, two bacteraemia and one with urosepsis) had complete clinical cure, with microbiologicalcure in cases where a repeat culture was indicated. There were no significant side effects in any of the evaluable32 patients assessed for safety.Conclusion: Cefepime/tazobactam is a safe and effective agent to treat patients with nonlife threatening sepsis due toGram negative bacteria. J Microbiol Infect Dis 2012; 2(3): 79-86Key words: Cefepime/tazobactam, BL-BLI, carbapenem sparing strategy.