Experience with parenteral and sequential parenteral-oral amoxicillin/clavulanate (augmentin) in hospitalized patients.

The efficacy and safety of sequential parenteral-oral Augmentin (amoxicillin plus clavulanic acid) therapy was evaluated in an open study with 249 adult patients in 18 Swiss hospitals. The patients were suffering from infections of the respiratory tract, skin and/or soft tissues, urinary tract, or female pelvic organs, and 36 had bacteraemia. One quarter of the patients treated were in a poor or critical condition. The overall bacteriological success rate was 94.1%. Augmentin achieved a satisfactory clinical response (cure or improvement) in 96.7% of the infections treated, with the following response rates for the five major categories of infection: respiratory tract infections 97.0%, urinary tract infections 97.8%, pelvic inflammatory disease 100%, septicaemia 91.4% and skin and soft tissue infections 95.7%. The observed adverse drug events include slight to moderate diarrhoea in 3.6% of the patients and skin reactions in 4.8%. It is concluded that Augmentin was an effective and safe treatment in this group of hospitalized patients.