Comparative clinical study of cefcapene pivoxil and cefteram pivoxil in chronic respiratory tract infections by a double-blind method.

In a double- blind study, the efficacy and safety of the novel cephemantibiotic cefcapenepivoxil (CFPN- PI; 450 mg/day) was compared with cefterampivoxil (CFTM- PI; 600 mg/day) in 171 patients with chronic respiratory tract infections. There was no significant difference between the clinical efficacy of the two drugs (80.2% for CFPN- PIversus 78.9% for CFTM- PI). There was no significant difference in the rate of elimination of the causative bacteria (60.5% for CFPN- PIversus 65.9% for CFTM- PI). Side-effects were observed in 6.0% of patients treated with CFPN- PIcompared with 6.4% of patients treated with CFTM- PI. There were no significant differences in incidence of abnormal laboratory findings following treatment with the two drugs (13.9% for each), and none of the side-effects was severe. We conclude that CFPN- PI(450 mg/day) was as effective and as well tolerated as CFTM- PI(600 mg/day) in the treatment of chronic respiratory tract infections.