Gentamicin in the Treatment of Meningitis

The purpose of this study was to evaluate gentamicin as a therapy for neonatal meningitis. Neonatal patients received intramuscular gentamicin plus intravenous ampicillin as treatment. Also, according to a prospective study protocol, alternate patients received intracisternal gentamicin daily for three days. Six of eighteen patients died, a lower percentage than with previous therapeutic study groups. Bacterial isolates from spinal fluid generally had a lower minimal bactericidal concentration for gentamicin than for other antibiotics tested. The data is encouraging, but the number of patients is too small to allow firm conclusions. Further evaluation with larger numbers of neonatal patients is indicated.