Background and Objective: Combination therapy may be a treatment option against carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CR-AB) infections. In this study, we explored the utility of fosfomycin in combination with meropenem (FOS/MEM) against CR-AB isolates.

Materials and Methods: Screening of synergistic activity of FOS/MEM was performed using the checkerboard assay. A pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic analysis was performed for various FOS/MEM regimens using Monte Carlo simulations.

Results: The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) required to inhibit the growth of 50% of the isolates (MIC50) and MIC required to inhibit the growth of 90% of the isolates (MIC90) of FOS and MEM were reduced fourfold and twofold, respectively. The combination was synergistic against 14/50 isolates. No antagonism was observed. Sixteen out of fifty isolates had MEM MICs of ≤8 mg/L when subjected to combination therapy, compared to none with monotherapy. Forty-one out of 50 isolates had FOS MICs of ≤128 mg/L when subjected to combination therapy, compared to 17/50 isolates with monotherapy. The cumulative fraction response for MEM and FOS improved from 0% to 40% and 40% to 80%, with combination therapy, respectively.

Conclusions: Addition of MEM improved the in vitro activity of FOS against the CR-AB isolates. FOS/MEM could be a plausible option to treat CR-AB for a small fraction of isolates.