This volume addresses a major problem encountered in the treatment of
Gram-negative bacterial infections: the capacity of antibiotics to release endotoxin from Gram-negative microbes during destruction of these microbes. The contributors examine the mechanisms of antibiotic-induced endotoxin release, discuss the role of endotoxin in the pathogenesis of
septic shock, and assess the impact of endotoxin release on the
clinical outcome of antibiotic therapy. The book presents extensive findings that various antibiotics differ significantly in their potential for endotoxin release. These differences are largely due to different modes of antibacterial activity. The relationship of antibiotic…
