Evaluation of the Therapeutic Effectiveness of Polymyxin B Versus Colistin in Carbapenem-resistanct Klebsiella pneumoniae-Associated Bacteremia

Abstract

Polymyxins are the last resort antibiotics for treating carbapenem-resistance Klebsiella pneumoniae
(CR-Kp)-associated bacteremia. The main aim of this study was to demonstrate the therapeutic effectiveness of
polymyxin B versus colistin in the treatment of CR-Kp-associated Bacteremia. This 12-month long cross-sectional
study was conducted on 54 and 47 patients suffering from CR-Kp-associated Bacteremia, and residing into two
separate groups, they were treated with polymyxin B and colistin, respectively. After 5 day-treatment, the
microbiological eradication rate was found 96.30% (52; n=54) in polymyxin B group and 87.23% (41; n=47) in
colistin group. In the 30-day mortality rate-comparison, 51.03% more death was found in colistin group (34.04 %, n=
47) than the polymyxin B group (16.67 %, n= 54). In this study, Polymyxin B showed superior therapeutic
potentiality with less number of secondary infections and 30-day mortality rate in CR-Kp-associated bacteremia than
colistin.