Osamu Kitamoto

Kanamycin: its therapeutic record in pulmonary tuberculosis.

Although there have been many researches on the therapeutic effects of kanamycin in pulmonary tuberculosis reported from various countries, I would like to state the outline of the studies which were carried out by several cooperative research organizations in Japan. The effectiveness of the single use of kanamycin was first recognized in the treatment of urological tuberculosis. I n the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis, however, an antituberculosis drug is as a rule to be administered in triple or double combination with other antituberculosis agents. Consequently, there have been very few studies on the therapeutic effects of the single administration of kanamycin. On the other hand, there are several studies which assessed the effect of administering kanamycin in double or triple combinations of drugs, for instance, K M plus PAS or K M plus INH plus PAS, in comparison with that of streptomycin. I would like to present first the results of clinical trials of kanamycin in the initial treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis, then the results of the therapeutic effects of kanamycin in the retreatment and surgical treatment with pulmonary tuberculosis resistant to major drugs. I shall also touch briefly upon the problem of the drug resistance and side reactions. For the evaluation of the therapeutic effects, “Standard for Evaluation of Course of Disease, Tuberculosis Research Committee supported by the Ministry of Education Grant; Gakken” was adopted. For the classification of the types of disease, “Gakken Classification” was used. The interpretation of all X-ray films was done by the Central X-ray Interpretation Committee.