carbapenem

noun

car·​ba·​pen·​em ˌkär-bə-ˈpe-nəm 

: any of a class of broad-spectrum antibiotics (such as imipenem) resistant to hydrolysis by beta-lactamase

Another class of antibiotics, carbapenems, is used as an antibiotic of last resort for the most persistent infections.

—Nicholas Bakalar

Examples of carbapenem in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Taming the new drug-resistant pathogens requires ever more toxic, expensive, and time-consuming therapies, such as a class of last-resort antibiotics called carbapenems, which must be administered intravenously in hospitals. —Sonia Shah, Foreign Affairs, 28 Mar. 2012

Then, in 2010, a study of a New Delhi-area hospital found that 24 percent of bacterial infections there could resist the last-resort carbapenem antibiotics. —Sonia Shah, Foreign Affairs, 28 Mar. 2012

For instance, among isolates of Acinetobacter baumannii, a common cause of nosocomial infections, 68 percent were resistant to carbapenem antibiotics, a class of antibiotics often used as a last-line defense. —Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 11 July 2023

In the case of Fowler’s patient, the specific E. coli bacteria strain had a gene that makes a protein called NDM-1, which can break down even the strongest, last-resort antibiotics, called carbapenems. —Caroline Hopkins, NBC News, 29 Mar. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1979, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

carbapenem

noun

car·​ba·​pen·​em ˌkär-bə-ˈpe-nəm 

: any of a class of broad-spectrum beta-lactam antibiotics (such as imipenem) having a five-membered ring system similar to the penicillins but containing a carbon atom instead of a sulfur atom

It rendered the Klebsiella, which was already resistant to many antibiotics used in critical care medicine, insensitive to the only remaining group that worked reliably and safely—the carbapenems, the so-called drugs of last resort.

—Maryn McKenna, Scientific American