Clinical Review of 163 Cases of M. Tuberculosis Treated during the Past 5 Years

Abstract

During the past five years, we have experienced 163 cases of mycobacterium tuberculosis. Every year, 60% to 83% of the tuberculous infections were accounted for by pulmonary tuberculosis (124 cases during the period under reviw, or 76% of the total). This was followed by tuberculous pleurisy which represented 7.3% to 24%(27 cases, 16.6%). The treatment most commonly given for the TB patients in our hospital was regimens consisting of isoniazid (INH), rifampin (RFP), ethambutol (EB) and streptomycin (SM). Recently, alternative drugs such as aminosalicylic acid (PAS) and cycloserine (CS) have come to be more frequently employed, because multidrug-resistant strains of M. tuberculosis have emerged. Treatment lasted one year to one year and a half in most patients, but the duration showed a tendency to get short.(The average length of time required for treatment decreased from 17.6 months in 1990 to 14.0 months in 1993.) However, the average length of hospital stay did not changed. In 1993-94, sputum smears were positive in 40% of the pulmonary tuberculosis patients on the average, compared with 20% in 1990. To be noted is the fact that M. tuberculosis has developed resistance to INH, RFP, EB and SM at an alarming rate since 1992. As a follow-up, a total of 147 patients were monitored clinically, and one was found to have a relapse (0.7%).