Besifloxacin effective in 90% poly bacterial eye infection, finds clinical trial

Besifloxacin effective in 90% poly bacterial eye infection, finds clinical trial.

An evaluation data from 3 clinical trials have shown that besifloxacin is high in treating the polybacterial ophthalmic infection. The analysis was presented at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology meeting.

Besifloxacin is in a class of medications called fluoroquinolones. Besifloxacin, a novel broad-spectrum fluoroquinolone, is approved for the treatment of bacterial conjunctivitis. It has a uniquely balanced dual-targeting activity that inhibits both DNA gyrase and topoisomerase IV and is associated with a lower incidence of resistance development.It comes as an ophthalmic suspension to apply to the eyes and its ocular use is considered safe.

The trial involved 1,041 subjects with an average age of 33 years with culture-confirmed conjunctivitis. The investigators reported that 83% were infected with two species 155 were infected with three and 2% were infected with four species. The most common species found in all the patents was Haemophilus influenza and Staphylococcus aureus.

The investigators found that besifloxacin worked really well on the patients who had polymicrobial infections and the eradication was statistically significant when they compared with vehicle alone.

The investigators feel that besifloxacin did very well regardless of the mixed polymicrobial infection and this confirmation is of great importance in terms of clinical implications.

The investigators believe that the role of the lab is imperative in ophthalmology. Using the lab in advance helps to identify the nature of infection and also helps the ophthalmologist in choosing the right antibiotic for the treatment.

"Ophthalmology is one area where the lab is poorly utilized," Blondeau said. "I've always argued that using the lab upfront helps confirm that an organism is present or not, whether it's a single or multiple organisms and what the antibiotic susceptibility or resistance profiles are. That gives assurance that you're making the right drug choice."

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When multiple organisms are present in the environment, trauma can result in inoculation and simultaneous (parallel) infections. In polymicrobial infection, several distinct interactions between organisms can result in a synergy of effect. Bacterial conjunctivitis is also known as pink eye is a common eye infection. A person can get conjunctivitis via various means of contamination. Bacterial conjunctivitis is very contagious, and standard infection control measures should be followed.