Carbenicillin and Gentamicin

Pseudomonas infections have been difficult to treat and distressingly common in hospitalized patients, especially those with impaired host defenses. Consequently, carbenicillin and gentamicin were welcome additions to the limited number of antipseudomonas antibiotics available. Disodium alphacarboxybenzylpenicillin, or carbenicillin, resembles ampicillin in its spectrum of antibacterial activity but has additional effectiveness for indole-positive proteus strains and, in high but clinically attainable concentration, against most isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Carbenicillin is often ineffective against members of the klebsiella-enterobacter-serratia group and occasionally inactive for Escherichia coli. Gentamicin, on the other hand, is broadly effective against aerobic gram-negative bacteria, in large part . . .