Susceptibility of bacterial isolates to cefepime in comparison to other broad spectrum antimicrobial agents at a tertiary care center in Lebanon.

Newly introduced antimicrobial agents have to be evaluated to establish their current activity and susceptibility data base against microorganisms for future comparison. Cefepime is a fourth generation cephalosporin that was recently introduced in Lebanon but no background susceptibility data is available for it in this country. We prospectively analyzed the antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of the bacterial isolates from the American University of Beirut Medical Center to a number of broad spectrum antimicrobial agents and compared it to the susceptibility of cefepime. Consecutive clinical bacterial isolates, representing 665 gram-negative and 387 gram-positive were tested: 82 to 100% of the gram-negative isolates were susceptible to cefepime, including most of the extended spectrum beta-lactamase producing Enterobacteriaceae. All the oxacillin susceptible staphylococcus isolates, and the penicillin susceptible Streptococcus spp. as well as 92% of the S. pneumoniae isolates were susceptible. The data shows that currently, cefepime provides a very broad spectrum of activity against gram-positive as well as gram-negative bacterial isolates recovered from clinical specimens.