title: [Meropenem in the treatment of surgical intra-abdominal infections].
abstract: Intraabdominal infections are severe with a high morbidity and mortality which may be produced by multiple causes: perforation of the empty viscera, intestinal inflammatory processes, vascular pictures, abdominal traumatisms as a consequence of surgery. From a microbiologic point of view, different types of gram positive and gram negative aerobes such as anaerobe microorganisms or fungi may be isolated as causes. Polymicrobial infections are usually observed. The main treatment policy is to correctly eliminate the causing foci of the bacterial contamination whether surgically of by percutaneous drainage. Parallelly, it is essential for the surgeon to use appropriate antibiotic treatment. Meropenem, a carbapenem, has a wide spectrum antibacterial activity which cover gram positive and gram negative aerobes in addition to anaerobes leading to scarce adverse reactions. All the above leads meropenem to be a very effective alternative in both the treatment of these infections as monotherapy and for initiating empiric therapy.
authors.affiliation: Catedrático de Cirugía, Facultad de Medicina de la Universidad de Santiago, Santiago de Compostela.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cainzos Fernández
mesh_terms: D000005:Abdomen; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology / Q000382:microbiology; D015377:Cilastatin / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004338:Drug Combinations; D006801:Humans; D015378:Imipenem / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000077731:Meropenem; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000188:drug therapy*; D013845:Thienamycins / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D004338:Drug Combinations; D013845:Thienamycins; D015377:Cilastatin; D015378:Imipenem; D000077731:Meropenem