Systemic Absorption of Orally Administered Neomycin in Liver Disease

Abstract

NEOMYCIN was introduced by Waksman and Lechevalier1 as an antibiotic active against organisms resistant to streptomycin. It was first given to patients with intractable tuberculosis or urinary infections, but was found to damage readily the kidney, the eighth nerve and possibly the liver.2 3 4 Waisbren and Spink5 gave neomycin parenterally to 63 patients and found evidence of transient renal damage in 24 cases, and 5 patients became deaf. At autopsy in their fatal cases, as in those of others,6 7 8 9 the kidneys showed severe tubular necrosis. Some of these authors also reported permanent perception deafness and occasionally vestibular damage; these sometimes developed . . .