Cefotaxime diffusion into cerebrospinal fluid of children with meningitis.

Cefotaxime diffused consistently and in therapeutic levels into the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 13 children successfully treated for bacterial meningitis. CSF cefotaxime levels early (6.0 micrograms/ml) and late (1.2 micrograms/ml) in treatment were severalfold the MBCs for the infecting organisms. After a single 40-mg/kg dose to each of five infants with ventriculostomies, mean CSF levels of cefotaxime were 6.4, 5.7, and 4.5 micrograms/ml at 2, 4, and 6 h, respectively.