• A Safarika, I Galani, A Pistiki, and E J Giamarellos-Bourboulis.
• 4th Department of Internal Medicine, University of Athens, Medical School, Athens, Greece.
• Eur. J. Clin. Microbiol. Infect. Dis. 2015 Feb 1; 34 (2): 317-23.

AbstractIn the present study, we challenged the concept that levofloxacin should not be used for the management of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) when minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) exceed 2 μg/ml. Multidrug-resistant (MDR) and genetically distinct isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (n = 49) and Acinetobacter baumannii (n = 29) from patients with VAP were exposed over time to levofloxacin, imipenem, colistin and their combinations. Synergy between levofloxacin and imipenem was found in 55.3 % and between levofloxacin and colistin in 90.9 % of isolates of P. aeruginosa within the first 4 h of growth. Synergy with imipenem but not with colistin was dependent of the MIC. Synergy between levofloxacin and imipenem was found in 58.6 % of isolates of A. baumannii after 24 h of growth. Considerable synergy was found between levofloxacin and colistin, reaching 84.8 % of isolates of A.baumannii after 6 h of growth. Synergy was independent from the MIC. These results create hopes that levofloxacin can be used as combination therapy for infections by MDR bacteria.

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