The worldwide spread of multidrug-resistant organisms has required the development of new antimicrobials. Linezolid, the first oxazolidinone, has a broad spectrum of activity against Gram-positive bacteria, including resistant strains. Although approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2002, the clinical experience with linezolid in the paediatric population is still limited, also given t...

Arena et al. describe in this issue a case of a young patient admitted to the intensive care unit for an acute subdural hematoma who developed bacteremia due to Enterococcus faecalis under linezolid treatment (1). They measured linezolid concentrations after 6 h of the last administration on 2 occasions, and both were close (2.13 mg/liter) or below (1.47 mg/liter) the MIC of E. faecalis (2 mg/l...

The emergence of resistance in gram-positive bacteria has necessitated a search for new antimicrobial agents. Linezolid is an oxazolidinone, a new class of antibacterial agents with enhanced activity against pathogens. We compared the activity of linezolid to those of other antimicrobial agents against 3,945 clinical isolates. Linezolid demonstrated potent activity against all isolates tested. ...

The susceptibilities of clinical vancomycin-intermediate Staphylococcus aureus (VISA), heterogeneous VISA, and laboratory-generated linezolid-resistant S. aureus strains to the new oxazolidinone AZD2563 were assessed by agar dilution MIC determination. All clinical strains were susceptible to linezolid, and the linezolid MICs for them were equal to or twofold higher than those of AZD2563. Cross...

OBJECTIVES We sought to determine if vitamin B6 therapy would reverse linezolid-associated cytopenias and/or peripheral neuropathy. PATIENTS AND METHODS We have recently treated two patients with disseminated Mycobacterium abscessus infections with prolonged (> or =9 month) courses of linezolid. Both patients developed cytopenias related to linezolid, and one patient also developed peripheral...

Sir, Ziglam et al. have recently reported an audit of linezolid use in a hospital in Scotland for the period March 2001–September 2003. We conducted a similar audit of linezolid use in a 504 bed teaching hospital, to assess the profile of patients prescribed linezolid, clinical and microbiological indications for treatment, adherence to the licensed indications and product specifications, and d...

BACKGROUND TR-700 is the active moiety of TR-701 (DA-7157), a new oral/intravenous oxazolidinone prodrug. We examined its activity against linezolid-susceptible and -resistant staphylococci and enterococci. METHODS MICs were determined by the CLSI agar dilution method. RESULTS MICs of TR-700 were tightly clustered around 0.5 mg/L for linezolid-susceptible staphylococci and enterococci compa...

Hypoglycemia was not previously known to be a linezolid-associated adverse reaction. A case report describing symptomatic hypoglycemia in a linezolid recipient prompted a review of the US Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System, which demonstrated a relationship between linezolid and hypoglycemia. A warning with this information was added to the linezolid package insert.

We report the emergence of linezolid resistance (MICs of 16 to 32 mg/liter) in clonally related vancomycin-susceptible and -resistant Enterococcus faecium isolates from an intensive care unit patient after 12 days of linezolid therapy. Only linezolid-susceptible isolates of the same clone were detected at 28 days after termination of linezolid therapy.

OBJECTIVE Peripheral neuropathy (PN) and optic neuropathy (ON) associated with linezolid use are described in the adult literature; however limited information is available in pediatrics. The purpose of this communication is to summarize pediatric cases of linezolid-associated neuropathy and to increase awareness of these neurologic side effects so that clinicians can most appropriately balance...