Clinical Observations on Viomycin Sulphate in the Treatment of Tuberculosis

1) Viomycin in doses of 2 grams twice weekly combined with 12 grams of PAS daily is of slight toxicity. 2) Tinnitus may be expected to occur. Allergic symptoms have not been a major problem. Auditory nerve damage of a serious degree is not frequent. 3) Streptomycin resistant organisms are affected by viomycin and patients having such organisms improve under intermittent viomycin treatment. 4) Bacterial resistance to viomycin did not develop to a significant degree among patients treated for six months. 5) Clinical and x-ray improvement is more striking in streptomycin-PAS treated patients, however, the effectiveness of viomycin-PAS is definite and demonstrable. 6) The clinical use of viomycin is feasible in the presence of streptomycin resistant organisms, and allergic sensitivity to streptomycin. Its use with newer antimicrobials should be explored.