Efficacy and toxicity of oxytetracycline (terramycin) and chlortetracycline (aureomycin); with special reference to use of doses of 250 mg. every four to six hours and to occurrence of staphylococcic diarrhea.

Abstract

AFTER the introduction of chlortetracycline (Aureomycin) in 1948 1 this antibiotic was rapidly recognized as an important and highly effective agent against a broad spectrum of infectious diseases. Oxytetracycline (Terramycin), introduced two years later, 2 was soon found to have an almost identical spectrum of activity. Both of these antibiotics are now undisputedly ranked among the most important antimicrobial agents that are available. In the course of the clinical evaluation of oxytetracycline at this hospital* an impressive proportion of patients receiving that antibiotic were noted as having diarrhea, with or without upper gastrointestinal symptoms; in many of these patients hemolytic coagulase-positive strains of Staphylococcus aureus were found in pure culture or as the predominant organisms in the watery feces. Some of the staphylococcic diarrheas were quite severe and may have caused or contributed to the death of a few of the patients. In comparing the untoward effects observed in two