STREPTOMYCIN USED IN THE TREATMENT OF SUPPURATIVE OTITIS MEDIA: A Preliminary Report

A MULTITUDE of measures have been tried in the treatment of suppurative otitis media. None is entirely satisfactory. This is particularly true in cases in which the otitis is chronic. A large percentage of the ears in which the condition is refractive will be found to be infected with gram-negative bacilli, namely, Bacillus proteus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. In ears from which these organisms were cultured, the results obtained with the usual methods of treatment in our hands, including the sulfonamide drugs and penicillin, have been consistently disappointing, though these same organisms are supposedly saprophytic. Often they must be pathogens.Since gram-negative bacilli usually are resistant to sulfonamide compounds and penicillin in vitro and in vivo, streptomycin was tried in a small series of ears infected with gram-negative bacilli after their sensitivity to this antibiotic had been proved in the laboratory by other workers.Streptomycin was used in a series of