Clinical study on effects of cefmetazole on severe infections accompanied by hematologic diseases

Severe infections accompanied by hematopathy under granulocytopenic conditions were treated with cefmetazole (CMZ). Subject diseases mainly consisted of acute leukemia, agranulocytosis and aplastic anemia; combined infections were septicemia, pneumonia, fever of an undetermined origin, etc. As for causative organisms found in cases that could be examined, Gram-negative bacilli such as Klebsiella pneumoniae, Klebsiella oxytoca, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacter cloacae were isolated, as was Staphylococcus aureus. In general, 4 g of CMZ divided into 2 administrations was given per day through intravenous injection or intravenous drip infusion. On the basis of the judgement criteria for effectiveness established by Takaku et al., the efficacy rate in this study was found to be 68%, including 2 cases that showed excellent responses to treatment of infections caused by S. aureus. Cases that showed pyretolysis within 4 days had over 1,000/microliter of neutrophils, while cases with less than 1,000/microliter showed no pyretolysis. No hepatorenal dysfunctions related to the treatment with CMZ were seen as side effects except increases of transaminase in 1 case. These results indicate that CMZ is a useful drug for the treatment of infections accompanied by hematopathy under granulocytopenic condition.