Cefazolin as a class representative for oral cephalosporins and uncomplicated urinary tract infections caused by indicated Enterobacteriaceae

摘要

We read with interest the manuscript by Nguyen and Graber (2013) concerning the failure of cephalothin as a class representative for antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) of certain oral cephalosporins. The issue of surrogate testing for oral cephalosporins has been discussed in previous years at the Subcommittee on AST of the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI). In 2012, the Ad Hoc Oral Cephalosporin Working Group was assigned to the task of qualifying a surrogate drug for oral cephalosporins for application when testing urinary tract isolates of Enterobacteriaceae. As members of this ad hoc group, we wish to rapidly share the reasoning behind the decision of the Subcommittee to assign cefazolin as the class representative and the designation of a separate set of interpretive criteria for urinary tract isolate breakpoints for this drug.