An in vitro evaluation of antibiotic combinations for urinary tract infections in patients with diabetes mellitus

This prospective in-vitro study evaluates the synergistic potential of various antibiotic combinations against resistant pathogens isolated from urinary tract infections (UTIs) in patients with diabetes mellitus. Antibiotic combinations using the microtiter checkerboard method showed that overall, synergy could be seen in 41.86%-67.44% cases amongst the five different antibiotic combinations studied against the four predominant resistant pathogens namely Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella ozaenae. The checkerboard synergy studies showed that 69.23% of the S. aureus strains tested were synergistically inhibited by the combination of ofloxacin + cefotaxime [OF+CF], 83.33% of the E. coli strains and 75% of the K. ozaenae strains were synergistically inhibited by the combination of amikacin + cefotaxime [AK+CF], while 58.33% of the P. aeruginosa strains were synergistically inhibited by the combination of amikacin + piperacillin [AK+PP].