Single intramuscular injection of aztreonam in the treatment of uncomplicated gonorrhoea in women

Summary

A total of 225 female patients with uncomplicated gonorrhoea was treated at random with either a single intramuscular injection of 1 g aztreonam or with 2.4 mega units procaine penicillin intramuscularly plus 1 g probenacid orally. Patients were followed up at 1, 2 and 3 weeks for bacteriological tests. The success rate among 101 of 116 patients on aztreonam who attended at least 1 follow-up examination after treatment was 100%, including 11 cases with penicillinase-producing N. gonorrhoeae. The minimum inhibiting concentrations of aztreonam in vitro were very much lower than the serum concentration, all strains being sensitive at 0.5 μg/ml or less. In a comparative group of 109 women treated with penicillin, there were 11 failures (penicillinase-producing N. gonorrhoeae strains) in 98 women who were followed-up. Aztreonam was well tolerated and there were no side-effects.

Key Words::

• Aztreonam
• antibiotics
• gonorrhoea
• beta-lactam