Abstract
Twenty-three newborn and young infants, including 13 low-birth-weight infants, were treated with cefmenoxime (CMX) and the clinical efficacy and side effects were evaluated. The ages of the patients ranged from 1 to 102 days, and their weights ranged from 0.83 to 4.19kg. Doses given were 18-42mg/kg every 6 to 12 hours for 2 to 16 days.
Among 12 infants with bacterial meningitis and sepsis, the results were excellent in 2, good in 7 and fair in 3 patients. The drug was well tolerated and no adverse effects were observed in the 23 patients.
Pharmacokinetic studies of CMX were done in 5 infants whose mean body weight was 3.03 kg (range 2.4 to 4.2kg). Serum concentrations at 15 minutes after 10mg/kg intravenous bolus injections were 35.6 and 55.7μg/ml in two 12-and 18-day-old patients. In 3 patients with ages of 7, 7 and 24 days, serum concentrations were 54.6, 102 and 100μg/ml, respectively, at 15 minutes after 20mg/kg doses. Elimination half-lives of the drug were 1.3 to 1.5 (mean 1.4) hours in these patients. Excretion rates into urine in the first 8 hours were 30.3, 74.2, 77.6 and 85.6% in four patients given 10 or 20mg/kg doses.
The cerebrospinal fluid level at 3 hours after the dose was 0.4μg/ml on 15th day of treatment in 1 patient with bacterial meningitis given 20mg/kg every 6 hours. Cerebrospinal fluid levels at 1, 2 and 0.58 hours after dose were 0.6, 0.54 and 2.48μg/ml on 2nd, 5th and 8th day of treatment, respectively, in another patient with aseptic meningitis given 42mg/kg every 8 hours.
