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As hospital gram-negative flora acquire resistance to present-day antibiotics, interest in older drugs is rekindling. Among these are the polymyxins, which are potent (but toxic) antimicrobial agents that were used to treat systemic gram-negative infections in the 1960s and 1970s. Since then, polymyxins have been relegated largely to eye drops and other topical preparations.
Spanish researchers prospectively evaluated the efficacy and safety of parenteral polymyxin E, or colistin, in the treatment of ventilator-associated pneumonia caused by Acinetobacter baumannii, a common, nosocomial, highly drug-resistant, gram-negative pathogen. Twenty-one ICU patients with acinetobacter pneumonia that was resistant to all alternative agents were treate…