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

Netilmicin is a new aminoglycoside antibiotic with pharmacological similarities to gentamicin, tobramycin and sisomicin. Fourteen of 15 patients with a severe or complicated urinary tract infection were cured by treatment with a seven day course of netilmicin. In one patient the infecting organism was not eradicated. No significant side effects were noted and no ototoxicity was detected. Four patients had a significant, but reversible, deterioration in renal function as defined by an increase in the plasma creatinine of 0.03 mmol/l or greater. Work in experimental animals has shown netilmicin to be significantly less ototoxic and nephrotoxic than other clinically available aminoglycosides. If this finding is confirmed in large-scale comparative trials in man, netilmicin should prove a most useful and effective new antibiotic for the treatment of severe gram-negative sepsis.