Current use for old antibacterial agents: polymyxins, rifamycins, and aminoglycosides.

Link to article at PubMed

Current use for old antibacterial agents: polymyxins, rifamycins, and aminoglycosides.

Med Clin North Am. 2011 Jul;95(4):819-42

Authors: Chen LF, Kaye D

This article reviews three classes of antibacterial agents that are uncommonly used in bacterial infections and therefore can be thought of as special-use agents. The polymyxins are reserved for gram-negative bacilli that are resistant to virtually all other classes of drugs. Rifampin is used therapeutically, occasionally as a companion drug in treatment of refractory gram-positive coccal infections, especially those involving foreign bodies. Rifaximin is a new rifamycin that is a strict enteric antibiotic approved for treatment of traveler's diarrhea and is showing promise as a possible agent for refractory Clostridium difficile infections. The aminoglycosides are used mainly as companion drugs for the treatment of resistant gram-negative bacillary infections and for gram-positive coccal endocarditis.

PMID: 21679793 [PubMed - in process]

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