Antibiotic susceptibility of anaerobic bacteria with special reference to Bacteroides fragilis.

It was shown that recent Swedish clinical isolates of anaerobic bacteria are susceptible to many antibiotics by the agar dilution method with the exception of the Bacteroides group versus beta-lactam antibiotics or tetracyclines. Strains of B. fragilis were inhibited by 4--greater than 128 micrograms benzylpenicillin or cephalothin/ml, 1.0--64 micrograms cefoxitin/ml, 0.064--2 micrograms clindamycin or metronidazole/ml, 2--8 micrograms chloramphenicol/ml, 2--16 micrograms fusidic acid/ml and 0.032--32 micrograms doxycycline/ml. Resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics was partly due to the production of beta-lactamase. Growth of beta-lactamase producing strains in the presence of enzyme inhibitors such as clavulanic acid or CP-45899 together with cephaloridine lowered the MIC's manyfold. Cefoxitin with relative resistance to beta-lactamases inhibited the majority of the strains at 8 micrograms/ml. Cefoxitin-resistant strains (MIC greater than or equal to 16 micrograms/ml) were also resistant to the new cephalosporins BL-S786 and HR-756 as well as to the new cefamycins A, B, CL619-183, CS-1170 and Sq-14359 and to thienamycin. Cefamycin CL619-183, only showed a slightly higher in vitro activity than cefoxitin. Resistance to the cefamycins could not be correlated to the production of beta-lactamases.