Delayed ethanol elimination in rats after application of cefamandole or cefoperazone

Adult female Sprague-Dawley rats received ethanol (2 g/kg b.w., i.p.) 18 hours after pretreatment with the betalactam-antibiotics cefamandole (CMD) or cefoperazone (CPZ) (1 mmol/kg b.w. each, i.p.). The blood ethanol concentrations, determined repeatedly within 4 hours by head space GC, were increasingly elevated after CMD or CPZ up to twice the respective control values. The possible clinical and forensic significance of these findings for the therapeutic use of CMD or CPZ is pointed out.