Control of Burn Wound Infection with Norfloxacin and Its Silver Derivative

Abstract

The emergence of resistant organisms has impaired the efficacy of topical therapy and hence other drugs have been investigated, ftforfloxacin, a quinoline carboxylic acid compound, exhibits a broad spectrum of activity against gram-negative and gram-positive organisms and a silver derivative displayed even greater activity in vitro. These compounds were then tested in burned mice and rats infected with organisms resistant to topical silver sulfadiazine therapy. In experiments with strains resistant to silver sulfadiazine, norfloxacin and silver norfloxacin reduced mortality to nil. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of these compounds is lower than silver sulfadiazine, and the drugs in vitro are effective in the presence of serum. This extension of our preliminary work includes fungi and a wide variety of Pseudomonas strains resistant or sensitive to silver sulfadiazine as test organisms. The high degree of efficacy, with no evidence of toxicity in the relatively low concentration needed, discloses compounds effective against silver sulfadiazine-resistant organisms.