Antimicrobial prophylaxis in patients with rhinorrhea or otorrhea: a double-blind study.

A controlled double-blind study was performed on patients with injury to the head and face which had caused rhinorrhea or otorrhea. The patients were treated, at the time of the admission to the hospital, with penicillin (20 mega-units daily) or a placebo. A total of 52 patients was studied, 26 in each treatment group. Meningitis developed in one patient in the placebo group. Staphylococcus epidermidis (sensitive to penicillin) was the causative pathogen in this patient who also had a retained intraventricular foreign body. The frequency of extra-neurological infections and of asymptomatic pulmonary bacterial colonization was similar in both groups, but frequency of asymptomatic bacteriuria was higher in the placebo-treated patients.