MedPage Today (6/1, Neale) reported that, according to a study published in Ophthalmology, common bacteria found on the eye were susceptible to newer-generation fluoroquinolones. For the study, researchers from Korea's Yonsei University College of Medicine obtained samples from 105 patients using conjunctival swabs immediately before refractive surgery.

Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) were found in 84.9 percent of the cultures; nearly one-third of those (31.4 percent) were methicillin-resistant. Also found were Staphylococcus aureus (2.3 percent), Streptococcus pneumoniae (1.2 percent), and gram-negative bacilli (4.8 percent). Next, the investigators treated the cultures with three newer-generation fluoroquinolones -- gatifloxacin, moxifloxacin, and gemifloxacin -- and two older-generation antibiotics in that class -- ofloxacin and levofloxacin. While the minimum inhibitory concentrations of the antibiotics required to stop the growth of 90 percent of the methicillin-susceptible CNS indicated that all five drugs were effective, the team found that the three newer-generation antibiotics as a group were significantly more effective against methicillin-resistant CNS than the two older ones.

Posted in: Bacteria, Fluoroquinolones