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Pharmacokinetic characteristics of piperacillin/tazobactam

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Abstract

Piperacillin/tazobactam is a new combination of a broad-spectrum penicillin and a beta-lactamase inhibitor. In studies in healthy volunteers, the pharmacokinetics of piperacillin combined with tazobactam were similar to those of piperacillin alone. In contrast, tazobactam administered with piperacillin achieved higher plasma concentrations and had a longer half-life than tazobactam administered alone. Intravenous infusion of 4.0 g piperacillin with 0.5 g tazobactam over 5 min resulted in mean maximum plasma concentrations of 380 μg piperacillin/ml and 35.3 μg tazobactam/ml; half-lives were 1.14 h for piperacillin and 0.92 h for tazobactam. Within 30 min of infusion, piperacillin/tazobactam achieves 16–85% of plasma concentrations in skin, muscle, lung, gallbladder, and intestinal mucosa. Plasma and tissue levels remain above the MIC90s of major pathogens for 2 h post administration. These findings show that piperacillin/tazobactam is a truly synergistic combination which can be expected to be effective in treating a wide variety of infections in the clinical setting.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IBMP, Institute for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Research, Schleifweg 3, D-90562, Nürnberg-Heroldsberg, Germany

    F. Sörgel & M. Kinzig

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  1. F. Sörgel
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  2. M. Kinzig
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Dedicated to Peter Nickel, PhD., Professor and Chairman of the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Bonn on the occasion of his 60th birthday

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Sörgel, F., Kinzig, M. Pharmacokinetic characteristics of piperacillin/tazobactam. Intensive Care Med 20 (Suppl 3), S14–S20 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01745246

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