Optic and Peripheral Neuritis

Chloramphenicol is one of the most valuable antibiotics available to the physician,¹although in rare instances it may cause severe hematopoietic reactions.²It is the purpose of this paper to emphasize another apparent severe toxic reaction—the occurrence of optic and peripheral neuritis. Report of a Case The patient was a 20-year-old man who had been in good health until Oct. 21, 1957, when he was treated with penicillin for a "flu-like" syndrome. Three days later genitourinary symptoms occurred; he became systemically ill and was hospitalized. Physical examination at that time showed only costovertebral angle tenderness. He had marked pyuria, and his chest roentgenogram showed a small infiltrate in the upper lobe of his left lung. He was treated with chlortetracycline and his genitourinary symptoms subsided. On Nov. 7, pain developed in his left shoulder, but roentgenograms were normal. A nonproductive arthrocentesis was performed, with the instillation of penicillin.