[Benzathine penicillin G and miocamycin in the treatment of children with streptococcal pharyngitis: a controlled therapeutic trial].

The aim of this study was to compare the clinical and bacteriologic effectiveness of miocamycin (Miocamin, Merck) as compared to benzathine penicillin G in the treatment of streptococcal pharyngitis. One hundred forty nine patients (aged 2 to 15 years) with culture proven Group A streptococcal pharyngitis were randomly assigned to receive miocamycin (15 mg/kg/day bid per os) or one injection of 600,000 or 1,200,000 units of benzathine penicillin G. The clinical response was similar in both groups, in terms of fever duration (16 +/- 14 hours with miocamycin vs 13 +/- 13 hours with penicillin) and normalization of appetite (87.7% of children with miocamycin vs 95.8% of children with penicillin after three days). Bacteriologic eradication of streptococcus was achieved in 66% of children treated with penicillin and 32% of those treated with miocamycin (p < 0.001). We conclude that a single benzathine penicillin is more effective eradicating streptococcus pyogenes than miocamycin in children with streptococcal pharyngitis.