Changes in the Fecal Flora and Drug Concentration in the Feces in the Course of Administration of Several New Chemotherapeutic Agents in Dysentery Cases

Abstract

Drugs employed are Cephaloridine, Nalidixic acid, Thiophenicol, Lincomycin, Tetracycline-lmethylenelysine, Demethylchlortetracycline, and two quinoline derivatives. These chemotherapeutic agents which were introduced recently into clinical field as anti-dysenteric medicine, were administrated principally orally with some exceptional use of intramuscular injections of Cephaloridine. Patients subjected to this series were those who had been admitted to this institute under the diagnosis of bacillary dysentery.
Changes in the pattern of the aerobic fecal flora, drug concentration in the feces in the course of administration of the drugs, and the related clinical aspects were investigated.
Although quite a few cases have shown bacterial replacement phenomena in their fecal resident flora following the drug administrations, clinical disorders which are considered to be due to such phenomenon have not been encountered yet.
Generally speaking, in the cases in which the drug concentration in the feces reached high level, the changes in the resident flora and the removing effect against Shigella bacilli were proved great. In spite of its high concentration level in the feces, however, the drugs belonging to such groups as Tetracycline and Chloramphenicol showed poor capacity for removing the Shigella, presumably because of increasing number of resistant bacilli to these drugs and the existence of cross resistance between them.
Marked removal of Escherichia coli from the culture media experienced 10 years ago following the Tetracycline and Chloramphenicol administration could no longer be observed in this series.