[On the combination of clindamycin with beta-lactam antibiotics and aminoglycosides (author's transl)].

With the checkerboard-technique, it was found in vitro, that methyl-[7-chloro-6,7,8-tridesoxy-6-trans-(1-methyl-4-propyl-L-2-pyrrolidincarboxamido)-1-thio-L-threo-alpha-D-galacto-octopyranoside] (clindamycin) in combination with cefoxitin, cefotaxim, mezlocillin, azlocillin, gentamicin and amikacin has no antagonistic effects against common infective microorganisms such as staphylococci, enterococci and E. coli. In most cases the combination was found to be synergistic. If the results of the in vitro experiments are calculated with the FIC-indices (fractional inhibitory concentration), only the combination of clindamycin with cefoxitin and clindamycin with cefotaxime showed no synergistic efficacy against Staphylococcus aureus. Only 20% of the enterococci strains were inhibited synergistically with the combination clindamycin and gentamicin or with amikacin, respectively. All the other strains tested were inhibited synergistically by the combinations of clindamycin with the antibiotics mentioned above. In clinical use clindamycin can be administered in combination with cefoxitin, cefotaxime, mezlocillin, gentamicin and amikacin, respectively, without any loss in its activity against the microorganisms tested in this study.