A double-blinded comparative study of sultamicillin and potassium penicillin V in the treatment of childhood streptococcal pharyngitis

Fifty-two children with positive pharyngeal cultures for group A streptococci were randomized to receive phenoxymethyl penicillin or sultamicillin, an ester of ampicillin and sulbactam. By serological and bacteriological criteria, sultamicillin was effective in 100% of the 20 evaluable cases of infection and carriage while penicillin was effective in six out of eight (75%) and three out of eight (93%) respectively. Of the eight children with infections treated with sultamicillin, three (37.5%) became recolonized with the organism compared to none of the children in the penicillin group. These differences were not statistically significant.