Combined Antibiotic Therapy in Serious Infections Caused by Drug-Resistant Staphylococci (1956-1957)

Abstract

The occurrence of severe systemic infections caused by drug-resistant staphylococci currently forms a serious threat to the effective medical and surgical management of hospitalized patients. These drug-resistant organisms occur in high density in hospitals all over the world, and treatment of the infections caused by them presents an outstanding challenge to antimicrobial therapy. Such serious infections tend to occur in patients whose normal host defenses against infection are impaired.^1,2 The unusual versatility of staphylococci permits the rapid emergence of variants resistant to any newly developed drug which is used on a large scale in the hospital environment. Therapy with single drugs often fails in serious staphylococcal infections because transient suppression of the drug-susceptible infecting organisms is rapidly followed by the emergence of a predominantly drugresistant microbial population. Therefore combined antimicrobial therapy has been widely practiced for the management of such serious staphylococcal infections. In spite of apparently vigorous therapy,