The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (American) 62:620-627 (1980)
© 1980 The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Inc.
Escherichia coli Infections in Rabbit Knee JointsThe Pharmacological and Antibacterial Effects of Intramuscular Antibiotics*
David J. Schurman, M.D. ,
Glen Kajiyama, B.A. and
Donald A. Nagel, M.D.
From the Division of Orthopaedic Surgery, Stanford University School
of Medicine, Stanford
Using a standardized strain of Escherichia coli 06 and a
rabbit knee-joint model, we determined the following values: (1) the effective
concentrations of amikacin and carbenicillin in vitro against
Escherichia coli 06 when used singly or in combination; (2)
the levels of each of these antibiotics in serum and synovial fluid after an
intramuscular injection; (3) the effectiveness of amikacin in preventing
intra-articular infection when it is administered thirty minutes before and
six hours after an intra-articular inoculation of the same strain of
Escherichia coli; and (4) the synergistic effects of amikacin and
carbenicillin in combination both in vitro and in vivo when
used together as a single dose six hours after intra-articular bacterial
inoculation. Amikacin was much more effective when administered before joint
inoculation and the minimum effective (inhibitory) concentrations of amikacin
in vitro and in vivo were approximately the same. A
synergistic effect of amikacin and carbenicillin in combination was more
clearly evident in vitro than in vivo.
CLINICAL RELEVANCE: In vitro tests such as
determinations of the minimum inhibitory concentration and the minimum
bactericidal concentration, and the serum bactericidal test, can provide
valuable guides for the determination of minimum goals for antibiotic therapy.
These in vitro tests were related to concentrations of antibiotics in
tissue assessed by in vivo bacterial challenge tests and were found
to be predictive of efficacy in vivo.

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