title: Treatment of experimental brain abscess with penicillin and chloramphenicol.
abstract: Recent reports have indicated that antibiotic therapy alone may be successful in resolving brain abscesses. We utilized an animal model of brain abscess to evaluate the efficacy of penicillin with and without chloramphenicol in preventing the development of brain abscess. When penicillin therapy was initiated at the time of bacterial contamination and continued for four days, the bacteria were eliminated. When therapy was delayed for 24 hr, the number of bacteria in brain tissue samples was significantly reduced, but all samples still contained bacteria. When therapy was delayed for 48 hr, there was no therapeutic benefit. Addition of chloramphenicol to each of these regimens did not significantly alter the results. Extending the duration of therapy to eight days provided no improvement over the results obtained after four days.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001922:Brain Abscess / Q000188:drug therapy*; D002701:Chloramphenicol / Q000097:blood / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D005260:Female; D007700:Kinetics; D010406:Penicillins / Q000097:blood / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000188:drug therapy*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D010406:Penicillins; D002701:Chloramphenicol