Intravenous ciprofloxacin in the treatment of infection in immunocompromised patients.

We initially used ciprofloxacin to treat immunocompromised patients whose fever had failed to respond or had recurred in spite of multiple broad-spectrum antibiotics. Results in this group encouraged us to proceed with a randomized trial of ciprofloxacin plus benzylpenicillin versus our standard empirical regimen of netilmicin and piperacillin for the treatment of fever in immunocompromised patients. Although the numbers of patients in this study are at present too small for comparison to be made, the favourable results seen in the refractory treatment group appear to be borne out so far in those receiving ciprofloxacin as first-line therapy.