Selection of appropriate antibacterial agents is the most important step in causal treatment for infections. Antimicrobial agents are clinically used cither for cases in which the pathogen has been identified or those in which the pathogen has not been identified. So far as anaerobic infections are concerned, treatment is often provided without exact identification of the pathogen. Early stages of treatment of anaerobic infections are mostly empiric. This is attributable to the following factors: (1) because non-spore-forming anaerobes constitute the indigenous flora on human skin or mucosa, it is difficult to determine whether or not an isolated strain is the pathogen; (2) identification of anaerobes takes several days; (3) infection with a mixture of anaerobes and aerobes is often seen, and so on. Therefore, when dealing with infections, it is essential to select appropriate antibacterial agents, with the possibility of anaerobic infections taken into account through assessment of the conditions of individual cases.
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