Treatment of cellulitis with ceforanide

Thirty-five patients with cellulitis were treated with ceforanide, 1 g every 12 h, intramuscularly. A good clinical response was observed in 33 cases. Drug failure in the remaining two patients was thought to be due to the lack of surgical debridement. Drug concentrations well in excess of inhibitory levels for Streptococcus pyogenes were generally present throughout the treatment period; although this was not true of ceforanide concentrations relative to inhibitory levels for Staphylococcus aureus, the clinical response in patients with staphylococcal infection still appeared to be entirely satisfactory. Killing of S. pyogenes by 5, 50, and 500x the minimum inhibitory concentration of ceforanide proceeded at the same rate in vitro as did killing by 5, 50, and 500x the minimum inhibitory concentration of penicillin.