Abstract
The clinical efficacy of sultamicillin, a linked ester of ampicillin and β-lactamase inhibitor, sulbactam, was studied and the following results were obtained.
Enrolled in the study included two patients with acute pharyngitis, one with acute tonsillitis, four with acute bronchitis, three with acute exacerbation of chronic bronchitis, one with chronic bronchitis, three with pneumonia, one with pulmonary congestion accompanied with infection, one with chronic pneumonia, one with acute cholecystitis and one with chronic cystits. Sultamicillin, one tablet each time, was orally administered three to four times a day for three to 14 days.
Two patients whose symptoms failed to be clearly determined as being infectious were excluded from assessment of the clinical efficacy. The clinical efficacy in other 16 patients was excellent in one patient, good in 13 and poor in two with an efficacy rate of 87.5%. In nine patients with whom assessment of the bacteriological efficacy was possible, causative organisms were found eradicated in seven patients, superseded with an newly emerging bacterial in one and remain unchanged in one.
Side effects reported included diarrhea in two patients, diarrhea accompanied with abdominal distension in one and glossitis in one, and two patients of those were untolerable to continuation of medication because of the side effects. No abnormal change in clinical laboratory tests related to sultamicillin dosing were observed except for one patient in whom eosinophilia was noted.
From the foregoing results, sultamicillin is regarded to be an antibiotic with high therapeutic effectiveness in the treatment of respiratory tract infections of moderate or less severity. On the other hand, however, somewhat high incidence of gastrointestinal side effects caused by the drug would remain as a problem.
