[Treatment of infection of the lower respiratory tract. Experience with a new quinolinone: pefloxacin]. / Il trattamento delle infezioni delle basse vie respiratorie. Esperienza con un recente chinolonico: la pefloxacina.

Twenty-nine patients (16 females and 13 males, aged 48 to 81 years) with lower respiratory tract infections have been treated with pefloxacin 400 mg, orally and/or intravenously, every 12 hours for 3 to 13 days. No other antibacterial agent was associated. Two patients dropped out because of gastralgia and vomiting and one because of pruritus. Success was obtained in 23 (88%) out of the 26 patients who completed the study. A patient with pleural empyema was treated successfully by washing the pleural cavity with a dextrose solution of pefloxacin. In addition to the drop-outs, 4 patients complained of gastralgia which disappeared spontaneously in 2 of them or after switching from oral to parenteral administration in the other 2. No adverse interaction was observed between pefloxacin and other drugs taken concomitantly, in particular theophylline, corticosteroids, and beta 2-adrenoceptor stimulants. Hematological tests including blood-cell count did not reveal any adverse modification.