Basic and clinical studies on tazobactam/piperacillin in the surgical field

We performed basic and clinical studies on tazobactam/piperacillin (TAZ/PIPC), an injectable antibiotic which is a combination of piperacillin (PIPC) and tazobactam (TAZ), a newly developed β-lactamase inhibitor, in the field of surgery. The following results were obtained. 1) Delivery into bile: Concentrations of PIPC, TAZ and desethyl-piperacillin (DEt-PIPC) in bile were measured in a postoperative patient with gall stone disease after intravenous drip infusion of TAZ/PIPC at 2.5 g. The peak levels in bile were 256 μg/ml, 9.98 μg/ml and 1340 μg/ml, respectively. 2) Clinical evaluation: 24 patients with surgical infections were treated with TAZ/PIPC. Clinical efficacy was excellent in 10 cases, good in 10, fair in 2 and poor in 2, the overall efficacy rate being 83.3%. Bacteriological response was observed as eradicated in 12 cases, partially eradicated in 1, replaced in 1 and unchanged in 4, resulting in a 72.2% eradication rate. No adverse reactions were observed, and abnormal changes in laboratory findings appeared in three patients.