ABSTRACT
The outcome of treating bacterial infections with antibiotics is a function of multiple variables. Factors that impact therapeutic efficacy include bacterial susceptibility to the antibiotics, physico-chemical properties of the drug product, specific properties of the infected tissue, metabolism and elimination of the antibiotic, host factors, and dosing regimen. Parameters commonly used to quantify the activity of antibiotics against a certain bacterium are the minimum inhibitory concentration, the minimum bactericidal concentration and the minimum antibiotic concentration. The effect of an antibiotic can be defined as the change in time of initial growth rate. Active growth has to be resumed before the bacteria become susceptible to another dose of the antibiotic. Antibiotic-containing broth is pumped from the central reservoir by a peristaltic pump at a specified flow rate through the tubing. There are only a few clinical trials in humans comparing intermittent vs. continuous dosing of ß-lactam antibiotics.
