Evaluation of penicillin therapy in patients with leptospirosis and acute renal failure

Authors

  • Elizabeth de Francesco DAHER Universidade de São Paulo; Faculdade de Medicina; Hospital das Clínicas
  • Charlys Barbosa NOGUEIRA Universidade Federal do Ceará; Faculdade de Medicina; Hospital Universitário Walter Cantídio; Departamento de Medicina Clínica

Keywords:

Acute renal failure, Leptospirosis and penicillin

Abstract

The effectiveness of specific antibiotic treatment in severe leptospirosis is still under debate. As part of a prospective study designed to evaluate renal function recovery after leptospirosis acute renal failure (ARF) (ARF was defined as Pcr >; or = 1.5 mg/dL), the clinical evolutions of 16 treated patients (T) were compared to those of 18 untreated patients (nT). Treatment or non-treatment was the option of each patient's attending infectologist. The penicillin treatment was always with 6 million IU/day for 8 days. No difference was found between the two groups in terms of age, gender, number of days from onset of symptoms to hospital admission, or results of laboratory tests performed upon admission and during hospitalization, but proteinuria was higher in the treated group. There were no significant difference in the other parameters employed to evaluate patients' clinical evolution as: length of hospital stay, days of fever, days to normalization of renal function, days to total bilirubins normalized or reached 1/3 of maximum value and days to normalization of platelet counts. Dialytic treatment indication and mortality were similar between group T and nT. In conclusion, penicillin therapy did not provide better clinical outcome in patients with leptospirosis and ARF.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Downloads

Published

2000-12-01

Issue

Section

Leptospirosis

How to Cite

DAHER, E. de F., & NOGUEIRA, C. B. (2000). Evaluation of penicillin therapy in patients with leptospirosis and acute renal failure . Revista Do Instituto De Medicina Tropical De São Paulo, 42(6), 327-332. https://revistas.usp.br/rimtsp/article/view/30467