Antibiotic Found to Increase Deaths in Sepsis Patients

Hospital records show Zosyn is more likely to lead to death than other treatments for sepsis.

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Researchers at the Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System and the University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor found a widely used antibiotic for the treatment of sepsis was more likely to be associated with mortality than another treatment.

A period of shortage of the antibiotic Zosyn—trade name piperacillin-tazobactam—was used by researchers to help determine the death rate associated with it. Bacterial sepsis patients who received Zosyn were 5 percent more likely to die within 90 days than those treated with cefepime, an antibiotic in a different class. Zosyn is commonly used to treat stomach infections, skin and uterine infections, and pneumonia.

Anti-Aerobic Antibiotics and Sepsis

The study was published in JAMA Internal Medicine last month. Researchers studied the outcomes of 7,569 patients with sepsis, median age of 63. There were 4,523 patients treated with piperacillin-tazobactam and 3,046 treated with cefepime. Both groups also received vancomycin, an antibiotic that kills bacteria in the intestines. An increase in the number of days of organ failure and use of ventilators in the piperacillin-tazobactam group was also noted.