Why Amoxicillin Is Preferred To Ampicillin For Upper Respiratory Tract Bacteria Infection

Amoxicillin is in augmentin as ampicillin is in ampiclox. Amoxicillin is better in treating upper respiratory tract bacteria infection than ampicillin. This is because of its concentration in the upper respiratory tract than ampicillin. Augmentin is a combination of amoxicillin and clavulanic acid while ampiclox is a combination of ampicillin and cloxacillin.

Amoxicillin And Ampicillin Classification

Ampicillin injection

Amoxicillin and ampicillin are aminopenicillins which are also referred to as beta lactams antibiotics. Their mechanism of action is to prevent bacterial cell formation. They are effective against most gram positive and negative bacteria as well as anaerobe of the upper respiratory tract, lower respiratory tract, skin, soft tissue and others. However, they are not alone effective against beta lactamase bacteria.

Amoxicillin capsule

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Clavulanic acid and cloxacillin are betalactamas inhibitors. Adding them to amoxicillin and ampicillin respectively increase their spectrum of activities to include beta lactams bacteria.

Indication

Augmentin and ampiclox are used in treating bacteria skin infections such as those caused by staphylococcus aureus. Staphylococcus aureus are gram positive facultative anaerobe that live on the skin and upper respiratory tract of most people. They can cause infection when a person get injured or weakened immune system.

However, ampiclox is not advisable to use in treating most upper respiratory tract bacteria infection including those caused by staphylococcus aureus in empirical treatment. Anaerobic bacteria are common in the upper respiratory tract, head and neck infection. They are predominant components of the normal human oropharyngeal bacteria infection that are of endogenous origin. They are isolated in otitis media, tonsillitis and sinusitis (oral and neck). They are beta lactams bacteria.

Augmentin is the preferred choice of antibiotics for treating upper respiratory tract bacteria infection when compared to ampiclox. Amoxicillin is better tolerated with less side effects. It slightly has a wider microbial spectrum of activity than ampicillin. Also, it has a better oral bioavailability even when taken with food.

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According to a research by Y. Valcke et al., in the 'Pharmacokinetics of antibiotics in the lungs,' ampicillin penetration into sputum and bronchial secretion after oral or parenteral administration is low between 2-5 percent of serum concentration. The research went on to confirm that the local and sputum concentration of amoxicillin are somewhat higher. The correlation between serum and sputum level is better for amoxicillin than that of ampicillin, the ratio being 6 percent.

The reason amoxicillin achieved high serum and sputum concentration in the upper respiratory tract may be attributed to their better absorption in the gastrointestinal tract. It achieves comparable concentration in bronchial secretion as ampiclox is half dose of ampicillin. So, the prescription of amoxicillin or augmentin over ampicillin or ampiclox in treatment of upper respiratory tract bacteria infection is not based on susceptibility but on high concentration of the drug in the upper respiratory tract.