Bactericide activity of sulbactam before bacteria belonging to the Acinetobacter calcoaceticus-Acinetobacter baumannii complex

BACKGROUND: To evaluate the bactericidal activity of colistin, imipenem and sulbactam against 24 Acinetobacter calcoaceticus-Acinetobacter baumannii complex isolations. METHODS: Bactericidal activity was estimated by using killing curves method. The concentrations employed were: colistin 4 mg/l, imipenem 8 mg/l and sulbactam 8 and 32 mg/l. RESULTS: Colistin was bactericidal in 24 isolations after 6 hours of incubation. When we used 8 mg/l of imipenem we detected bactericidal activity at the susceptible strains (MIC < or = 4 mg/l). We found bactericidal effect in 15 of 18 strains susceptible to sulbactam when we used 8 mg/l in killing curves after 24 hours of incubation. Using 32 mg/l we detected the same effect in 18 strains with MIC < or = 8 mg/l. CONCLUSIONS: Considering the high incidence of resistance in Acinetobacter spp. to several antibiotics including imipenem, we consider that sulbactam could be an excellent therapeutic alternative because it presents bactericidal activity in susceptible strains.