Cefotaxime is an antibiotic used to treat several bacterial infections in humans, other animals, and plant tissue culture.

These bacteria often manifest as infections of the lower respiratory tract, skin, central nervous system, bone, and intra-abdominal cavity.

[15] Considering regional microbial sensitivities is also important when choosing any antimicrobial agent for the treatment of infection.

Caution should be used and risks weighed against potential benefits in patients with an allergy to penicillin, due to cross-reactivity between the classes.

[citation needed] The most common adverse reactions experienced are: Cefotaxime is a β-lactam antibiotic (which refers to the structural components of the drug molecule itself).

As a class, β-lactams inhibit bacterial cell wall synthesis by binding to one or more of the penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs).

[8] Unlike β-lactams such as penicillin and amoxicillin, which are highly susceptible to degradation by β-lactamase enzymes (produced, for example, nearly universally by S. aureus), cefotaxime boasts the additional benefit of resistance to β-lactamase degradation due to the structural configuration of the cefotaxime molecule.

As cefotaxime is metabolized to both active and inactive metabolites by the liver and largely excreted in the urine, dose adjustments may be appropriate in people with renal or hepatic impairment.