Treatment of Staphylococcal Septicemia with Vancomycin

Abstract

DESPITE the number of antibiotics now available, the treatment of severe staphylococcal infections has been relatively unsatisfactory. Failures are attributable in part to the debilitated state of many of the patients, and in part to the development of resistance to most of the available antibiotics within a short period. A potent bactericidal antibiotic that can be administered to patients in large doses, and to which staphylococci do not quickly become resistant, has been lacking. During the first five years it was used, penicillin was responsible for a decline in the mortality of staphylococcal septicemia from over 80 per cent to . . .