Sisomicin in the treatment of severe or complicated urinary tract infections.

Sisomicin is a new aminoglycoside aminocyclitol antibiotic with pharmacological similarities to gentamicin and tobramycin. Fourteen of 24 patients with a severe or complicated urinary tract infection were cured by treatment with a 4-14 day course of sisomicin. In three patients the organism was not eliminated, in one there was a relapse with the same organism while in the remaining six patients a new pathogen (a gram-positive organism in five of these six) appeared within three to six days of completing the course of treatment. The initial infecting organism was therefore eradicated in 20 of the 24 patients treated. This drug should prove beneficial for the treatment of severe gram-negative sepsis.