The lack of treatment for multidrug-resistant (MDR) Enterobacteriaceae often leads to the use of double or triple antibiotic combinations to increase the option of clinical success. This study analyzes multiple combination bactericidal testing (MCBT) to screen double and triple antibiotic combinations, at standard peak serum concentration, for bactericidal activity against 21 MDR Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates. This method was compared with time-killing curves. The full bactericidal activity against all strains was obtained only by adding colistin. MCBT has a potential to become a rapid method for testing multiple antibiotic combinations for MDR microorganisms when colistin is used, providing clinicians with in vitro cidal data within 48 hr of strain isolation.
Anti-Bacterial Agents Colistin