Evaluation of sulbactam plus ampicillin for treatment of experimentally induced Klebsiella pneumoniae lung infection in foals.

This research investigates the effectiveness of using a combination of sulbactam, a beta-lactamase inhibitor, with ampicillin for the treatment of pneumonia caused by beta-lactam-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae in foals. The study found that this combination resulted in a significant decrease in the severity of pneumonia compared to just using ampicillin or a vehicle.

Methodology

• The study was conducted on 18 healthy weanling foals, in which pneumonia was intentionally induced.
• The foals were randomly divided into three treatment groups: one group was treated with a combination of sulbactam and ampicillin, another group received just ampicillin, and the remaining group was treated with a vehicle only.
• The treatments went on for a period of seven days, during which the observer was kept unaware of the treatment statuses.

Results

• The study found that the treatment with sulbactam and ampicillin resulted in a significant reduction in the severity of pneumonia compared to the ampicillin and vehicle treatments. This was measured through bronchoalveolar lavage cytologic findings and extent of macroscopic lesions in the non-inoculated regions of the lung tissue.
• Moreover, the bacteriologic culture of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid samples, pathologic features, and histopathologic variables notably improved in the foals treated with sulbactam and ampicillin.
• However, there were no observable treatment effects on radiographic, hematologic, and blood gas abnormalities that resulted from the infection.

Conclusion

• The combined treatment of sulbactam and ampicillin displayed synergistic effects in reducing the extent and severity of experimentally induced gram-negative lung infection in the foals.
• While there was improvement observed in several areas, the combination treatment did not seem to have any effect on certain aspects of the infection such as radiographic, hematologic, and blood gas abnormalities.