Gentamicin in the treatment of gonorrhoea in females.

The increasing resistance of Neisseria gonorrhoeae to many antimicrobial agents demands a continual search for alternative drugs for its treatment.As more resistant strains emerge, it is conceivable that the required dose of penicillin, even with probenecid, will become too large to be acceptable.The aminoglycosides are among the potential alternatives.Kanamycin has already been shown to be efficacious in investigations by Wilkinson, Race, and Curtis (1967), Hooton and Nicol (1967), and Fischnaller, Pedersen, Ronald, Bonin, and Tronca (1968).Spectinomycin hydrochloride is also proving to be an acceptable alternative to penicillin.Neisseria gonorrhoeae has been shown by Finland (1969), Waitz and Weinstein (1969), and Phillips, Rimmer, Ridley, Lynn, and Warren (1970) to be susceptible in vitro to gentamicin at concentrations that are readily achieved in vivo.Felarca, Laqui, and Ibarra (1971), Siboulet (1972), and H{antschke, Strauss, Linzenmeier, Gahlen, and Heller (1973) have used gentamicin to treat gonorrhoea.In the present study, gentamicin was used successfully to treat females with gonococcal infection. Material and methodsWomen presenting at the Venereal Disease Clinic at the Winnipeg General Hospital with a history suggestive of gonorrhoea, contact with a known case of gonorrhoea, or a known positive cervical culture, had a cervical swab taken for smear and culture, and blood was taken for a VDRL.They were then given 240 mg.gentamicin intramuscularly as a single injection of 6 ml.into the upper outer quadrant of one buttock.No rectal or pharyngeal cultures were taken.Patients were then requested to return for follow-up cultures at 46 hrs, 5 days, and 12