[Clinical evaluation of amikacin by intravenous drip infusion for infections in the field of internal medicine].

Amikacin (AMK) by intravenous drip infusion was given to patients with infections in the field of internal medicine and the results were followings: AMK was administered to 19 patients. Diagnosis included sepsis or suspected sepsis (11 cases), pneumonia (2 cases), chronic respiratory tract infections (3 cases) and urinary tract infections (3 cases). Underlying disease included hematologic disease (13 cases), lung fibrosis (1 case), chronic respiratory insufficiency (1 case), diabetes mellitus (1 case), hepatic coma and bronchial asthma (1 case) and prostatic hypertrophy (1 case). Nineteen episodes responded to single therapy (2 cases) or combined therapy with other antibiotics (17 cases). AMK by intravenous drip infusion (dissolved in not less than 100 ml of saline or glucose) was administered at the dose of 200 mg/day to 600 mg/day divided into 2 or 3 times, over 1 hour to 2 hours. The mean duration of therapy was 10 days and the mean total dose was 4.3 g. Clinical effects: Excellent in 7 cases, good in 7 cases, fair in 3 cases and poor in 2 cases, and efficacy rate was 74%. Bacteriological effects: Disappeared in 3 cases, partly disappeared and unchanged in 3 cases, superinfection in 1 case and newly appeared in 1 case. Four strains out of 7 cases of which were detected the causative bacteria were disappeared. GM resistant bacteria (S. marcescens in 2 strains and C. diversus in 1 strain) were disappeared by the administration of AMK, also some clinical symptoms and signs were improved. No side effects and no abnormalities in laboratory findings were noted in any cases attributed to AMK. In conclusion, high efficacy rate was obtained without any side effects, intravenous drip infusion of AMK seemed to be useful for infections in patients with bleeding tendency (e.g. leukemia) or malignant disease.