Evaluation of Results After the Administration of Drugs in the Presence of Resistant Mycobacterium Tuberculosis

¹ Chief Chest Service, Gorgas Hospital. Professor of Phthisiology, University of Panama, Medical School.
² Staff Chest Service, Gorgas Hospital. Assistant Professor of Phthisiology, University of Panama Medical School.

1. Two hundred and seventy patients with pulmonary tuberculosis admitted to the Chest Service of Gorgas Hospital from June 1949 through December 1954 were evaluated.

2. Clinical, radiological and bacteriological results were analyzed on those patients that developed resistant bacilli to the antituberculous drugs.

3. The fact that the development of resistance occurs earlier when these agents are administered alone than when given combined with one or more is again confirmed; therefore, from a purely medical standpoint, the use of one drug alone, including viomycin is not to be recommended.

4. Once resistance appears, there is no clinical, radiological, or bacteriological improvement that can be attributed as due to the chemo-antibiotics agents.

5. Even in the presence of resistant organisms, the chemo-therapeutic agents prevent extensions and disseminations as the result of surgical interventions and they stabilize the lesions on the so called "good chronics."

6. Toxicity to the drugs was found in four (1.4 per cent) of the cases. Only one had permanent damage.