One hundred and eighty-seven children with identified bacterial meningitis were treated with intravenous cefotaxime: 15 patients were neonates, 79 infants, and 93 were aged from 1 to 14 years. Causative organisms were: Neisseria meningitidis in 80 cases, Streptococcus pneumoniae in 41, Haemophilus influenzae in 40, enteric gram-negative bacilli in 20 and Staphylococcus spp. in six. Enteric gram-negative bacilli included: Salmonella spp. in 14 cases, Klebsiella pneumoniae in two, and Escherichia coli, Enterobacter sakazakii and Acinobacter calcoaceticus in one each; in one case the organism was not specified. Daily dose of cefotaxime was 150 to 300 mg/kg. Concomitant treatment with an aminoglycoside was used in seven cases. One hundred and seventy-two patients (92.0%) were cured. Fever persisted for a mean of five days and meningeal signs for a mean of four days. Fifteen (8.0%) patients died: most [13] of them were admitted in coma, and two in shock. Death occurred in the first 48 h in ten cases. Sterilization of CSF was achieved in the first 72 h of treatment in 155 (90.1%) of the cured patients. Cefotaxime was well tolerated. CSF penetration of cefotaxime was evaluated in seven patients: concentrations ranged from 0.499 mg/l to 2.829 mg/l. Based on this clinical study, cefotaxime is an effective and safe drug for the treatment of childhood bacterial meningitis.
One hundred and sixty cases of acute bacterial meningitis were treated with cefotaxime. Patients were between 9 days and 79 years old: 7 new borns, 37 infants, 43 children, 19 adolescents and 54 adults. Fifty-eight patients (36%) were in coma when admitted. Aetiology was determined in 110 patients (68.8%): Neisseria meningitidis in 42, Streptococcus pneumoniae in 36, Haemophilus influenzae in 16, Salmonella spp. in 7, Staphylococcus aureus in 2, Enterobacter spp. in 2 and Haemophilus parainfluenzae, pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Citrobacter freundii and Klebsiella pneumoniae in one patient each. All isolates were sensitive to cefotaxime, with MIC's for 26 strains ranging from 0.01 to 0.50 mg/l. One hundred and fifty-six of the 160 patients were treated with cefotaxime alone and the four others with cefotaxime in association with an aminoglycoside in three and rifampicin in one. Cefotaxime was administered by intravenous infusion, in a daily dose 100 to 300 mg/kg. Duration of treatment ranged from 8 days to 6 weeks, with a mean of 15 days. One hundred and forty-nine patients (93.1%) were cured, two after a relapse. Three patients had sequelae. Most (88.5%) had sterile CSF within 72 h after starting treatment. Eleven patients (6.9%) died, eight within the first 48 h. The only side-effects observed were mild transient eosinophilia in some patients and rash and leukopenia in 2 each. The study demonstrates that cefotaxime is effective in the treatment of acute bacterial meningitis.
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