Use of Kanamycin for Treatment of Pulmonary Tuberculosis Showing Deterioration During Chemotherapy

Abstract

Clinical trials of kanamycin for treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis were first made by Donomae, et al.¹⁾ In order to evaluate the effectiveness of this new drug, these authors examined the effect on 79 fresh cases who had not received any chemotherapy and on 31 old cases who had received chemotherapy using streptomycin, PAS and INH. According to these authors, combination of kanamycin and PAS is equally effective as that of streptomycin and PAS.

Number of cases resistant to most powerful chemotherapeutic agents, streptomycin and INH, are increasing and they are often also resistant to PAS. The present authors often encounter the cases who show formation of new lesions, or spreading or deterioration of old lesions inspite of continuation of chemotherapy using these drugs. In these cases, tubercle bacilli isolated from the sputa are usually resistant to all these drugs. As reported by Yanagisawa, et al.²⁾, tubercle bacilli resistant to streptomycin are sensitive to kanamycin and there is no cross resistance relation between kanamycin and other drugs effective to tuberculosis. Kanamycin is one of most effective drugs to tuberculosis, and, therefore, at present it is most worthy for treatment of the cases who do not respond to other powerful drugs such as streptomycin and INH and who show exacerbation or spreading or deterioration of old lesions. To evaluate effectiveness of kanamycin on such cases is the purpose of the present study. Such 10 cases were selected and have been treated by kanamycin for a year. This paper describes results of observations on these cases during the treatment.