Current Use for Old Antibacterial Agents: Polymyxins, Rifamycins, and Aminoglycosides

Abstract

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 app…