In Vitro Activities of Ertapenem (MK-0826) against Clinical Bacterial Isolates from 11 North American Medical Centers

This study compared the in vitro activities of the new long-half-life carbapenem ertapenem (also known as MK-0826 and L-749,345) with those of imipenem, amoxicillin-clavulanate, and ciprofloxacin against 5,558 recent clinical isolates from 11 North American medical centers. We confirmed the greater activity of ertapenem than of imipenem against the Enterobacteriaceae and the greater activity of imipenem against pseudomonads and gram-positive bacteria.