Sulbactam/ampicillin versus cefoxitin for uncomplicated and complicated acute pelvic inflammatory disease

Abstract

In this study, 17 women were treated for uncomplicated acute pelvic inflammatory disease requiring hospitalisation for therapy, and 5 women were treated for the same infection complicated by pelvic abscesses. Treatment regimens were sulbactam 1g plus ampicillin 2g (14 women) or cefoxitin 2g (8 women) given by intravenous infusion every 6 hours. On the third day of therapy, a rash developed in 1 woman who was being successfully treated for uncomplicated disease with sulbactam/ampicillin. The other 21 women were cured. No other adverse clinical reactions and no significant abnormal laboratory results were observed with either regimen. Bacteriological efficacy, 98% for sulbactam/ampicillin and 94% for cefoxitin, closely paralleled clinical efficacy. Sulbactam, a suicide-type beta-lactamase inhibitor, appears to have restored and expanded the antibacterial activity of ampicillin.