The treatment of lower respiratory tract infections requires an agent with activity against a wide range of bacterial pathogens, including pathogens that produce β-lactamase. Loracarbef, a member of the carbacephem class of antibiotics resistant to β-lactamase, was tested in a series of clinical trials for its efficacy and safety in the treatment of lower respiratory tract infections including bacterial pneumonia.
We gave loracarbef, a member of the carbacephem class of antibiotics and cefaclor over a 2-week observation period to 60 patients with lower respiratory tract infections during the period from March 1994 to August 1994 in Severance hospital, Seou, Korea. In this study, 60 patients (35 men, 25 women) were randomly assigned to receive 200mg of loracarbef twice daily or 250mg of cefaclor thrice daily in patients with acute bronchitis and acute exacerbation of chronic bronchitis and to receive 400mg of loracarbef twice daily or 500mg of cefaclor thrice daily in patients with bacterial pneumonia for fourteen days.
The results of our study were as follows:
Significant improvement in symptoms such as cough, expectoration, dyspnea, tachypnea, chest pain, chills and abnormal physical signs on auscultation was noted. Clinical response was assessed in 30 loracarbef-treated and 30 cefaclor-treated patients. Among these evaluable patients, a clinical cure was found in 50% of the loracarbef-treated patients and in 46.7% of the cefaclor-treated patients and improvement in 46.7% and 46.7%, respectively. The overall clinical response to loracarbef and cefaclor was 96.75 and 93.4%, respectively. Loracarbef was well tolerated and side effects was negligible.
It is concluded that loracarbef is safe and effective in the treatment of lower respiratory tract infections.
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