Methicillin Treatment of Severe Staphylococcal Disease

Abstract

UNTIL recently the antibiotic treatment of serious staphylococcal disease was hampered by the emergence of resistance of the organisms to most of the available antimicrobial agents and by the toxicity of those that remained effective. The nature of staphylococcal infections, their necrotizing character and their propensity to produce walled-off abscesses also tends to render the organisms difficult to reach by circulating antibacterial substances. The isolation of 6-aminopenicillanic acid by Batchelor et al.¹ has made possible the production of semisynthetic penicillins that are resistant to staphylococcal penicillinase (or penicillinases) and are as nontoxic as penicillin G, thus offering hope of an . . .