Question 10

What was the bacterial eradication like with levofloxacin and how did this compare to the results found with amoxicillin-clavulanate or other comparator agents?

Among the complicated bronchitis patients, the microbiological eradication rate was 81.4% after 5 days of levofloxacin compared to 79.8% after 10 days of amoxicillin/clavulanate (Table 2) (7).

Table 2. Microbiological eradicationa rates at the post-therapy visit in microbiologically evaluable population

		Uncomplicated group			Complicated group
		Levofloxacin	Azithromycin	95% CIb	Levofloxacin	Amoxicillin/ clavulanate	95% CIb
Pathogen category
	Gram-positive aerobic pathogens	20/22 (90.9)	12/15 (80.0)	-37.8-16.0	21/24 (87.5)	14/19 (73.7)	-40.3-12.6
	Gram-negative aerobic pathogens	76/81 (93.8)	88/105 (83.8)	-19.4-0.6	75/93 (80.6)	88/106 (83.0)	-8.9-13.7
Total by pathogen		96/103 (93.2)	100/120 (83.3)	-18.6-1.1	96/117 (82.1)	102/125 (81.6)	-10.6-9.7
Total by patientc		75/80 (93.8)	72/87 (82.8)	-21.2-0.8	70/86 (81.4)	71/89 (79.8)	-13.9-10.7
Pathogen
	Enterobacter cloacae	1/1 (100.0)	3/5 (60.0)		0/0 (0.0)	0/0 (0.0)
	Haemophilius influenzae	26/27 (96.3)	21/24 (87.5)	-25.9-8.3	25/30d (83.3)	20/20 (100.0)	0.8-32.5
	Haemophilius parainfluenzae	18/20 (90.0)	20/23 (87.0)	-24.6-18.5	18/20 (90.0)	15/18 (83.3)	-31.1-17.8
	Klebsiella pneumoniae	2/2 (100.0)	5/6 (83.3)		1/2 (50.0)	4/5 (80.0)
	Moraxella catarrhalis	14/14 (100.0)	18/20 (90.0)	-26.7-6.7	10/12 (83.3)	16/19 (84.2)	-30.0-17.8
	Pseudomonas aeruginosa	3/3 (100.0)	4/6 (66.7)		3/5 (60.0)	4/5 (80.0)
	Staphylococcus aureus	7/7 (100.0)	0/2 (0.0)		4/5 (80.0)	3/5 (60.0)
	Streptococcus pneumoniae	11/12 (91.7)	10/11 (90.9)	-28.4-26.9	16/18 (88.9)	10/13 (76.9)	-42.9-19.0
Data are presented as n/N patients, unless otherwise stated. a  Eradication plus presumed eradication. b  Two-sided 95% CI around the difference of comparator minus levofloxacin. c  Eradication of all pathogens identified at study entry for a patient. d  One patient was inappropriately assessed as a failure by the investigator, even though all of the patient’s baseline symptoms were resolved and H. influenzae had been eradicated. Abbreviation: CI = confidence interval. Adapted from reference (7).