Antibiotic Combinations

Abstract

THERE has been considerable interest in the past few years in the use of multiple antibacterial agents — engendered, in large measure, by the failure of available antimicrobials adequately to cope with increasing numbers of antibiotic-resistant infections, notably staphylococcal infections in hospitals. This interest has been further stimulated by the possibilities that the combinations will exert a potentiating or synergistic action, broaden the spectrum of antibacterial activity, and avoid or delay the emergence or overgrowth of resistant species or of resistant variants of originally susceptible species of bacteria. Unfortunately, the haphazard and uncontrolled use of multiple antibiotics, as practiced by . . .