[Penicillin G in the treatment of pneumococcal meningitis. Its real importance at the present time].

The authors carried out this work with the purpose both of verifying the present importance of penicillin G for the treatment of pneumococcal meningitis and of comparing it with the clinical effectiveness of other medicines presently available for the same purpose. They have studied 27 patients with clinical and laboratory diagnosis of pneumococcal meningitis and which were admitted in the "Serviço de Infecto-Contagiosos" of Santa Maria Hospital, Lisbon, for the period from 1.1.81 until 31.05.86. Of these patients 18 were males and 9 females, ranging from 8 to 80 years old. All of them were treated exclusively with penicillin G, the medium dose being 400,000 IU/kg per day and for a medium period of 15 days. The final results accounted for: 23 patients healed (85.2%), 2 decreased (7.4%) and the remaining 2 (7.4%) with neurological sequels by the time of discharge from the hospital. These, in our opinion, are values for the minimum equivalent to those in other series of the same pathology and under treatment by the different medicines presently available in alternative. Bearing in mind these results and considering it is more expensive to use these new antibiotics, the authors think they may state that penicillin G keeps ahead for the treatment of pneumococcal meningitis, except for cases of hypersensitivity to this medicine or penicillin-resistance.