Article in Japanese

Efficacy of tebipenem pivoxil for moderate community-acquired lower respiratory tract infections in children

Katsuya TASHIRO¹⁾

This single-institute study clarified the efficacy of tebipenem pivoxil (TBPM-PI), an oral carbapenem antibiotic, in 24 children with moderate community-acquired lower respiratory tract infections. Before the administration of TBPM-PI, we assessed whether the patients were complicated with severe dehydration and evaluated their general condition. The enrolled subjects consisted of 18 inpatients and six outpatients who were administered TBPM-PI orally twice a day at a dose of 4∼5 mg/kg. In 23 of 24 cases (95.8%), principal symptoms, such as fever, coughing and a poor general condition, resolved within three days after starting treatment with TBPM-PI. Furthermore, the average white blood cell (WBC) count, the percentage of neutrophils and C-reactive protein (CRP) value markedly improved (WBC: from 14,580/μl to 7,470/μl, The percentage of neutrophils: from 64.5% to 39.5%, CRP: from 7.43 mg/dl to 0.43 mg/dl, respectively) after TBPM-PI administration. TBPM-PI exhibited strong antimicrobial activity against all of the 31 isolated bacterial strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae and Moraxella catarrhalis, at a concentration of 2 μg/ml or less. The clinical effectiveness of TBPM-PI was equivalent to that of parenteral antibiotics and the length of hospital stay was significantly shorter for inpatients treated with TBPM-PI than those administrated parenteral antibiotics (2.94±1.09 days vs. 5.64±1.57 days, p<0.001). The results of this study strongly suggest that oral TBPM-PI is a potent therapeutic choice for treating children with moderate community-acquired lower respiratory infections.

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1) Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Saga University

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Received	October 7, 2016
Accepted	July 26, 2016

28 (3)：191─199,2016