[Per rectal administration of antibiotics. Clinical use of ampicillin in respiratory tract infection in children].
As one of our clinical studies on per rectal administration of antibiotics, children who suffered respiratory tract infection (RTI) were administered with ampicillin (ABPC) through this route. Our conclusions drawn from this study are as follows: 1. One hundred and eighty strains of aerobic bacteria which were isolated by us in 1984-1985 were tested for the sensitivity to ABPC using plate-disk method. MIC's of ABPC for all the strains of Streptococcus pyogenes were lower than 0.024 micrograms/ml. MIC's for all the strains of Streptococcus haemolyticus were 0.05-0.20 microgram/ml. MIC's for 88% of the strains tested of Haemophilus influenzae were 0.10-0.78 microgram/ml. 2. Bacterial flora in the respiratory tract of 97 cases of children, who suffered RTI, were cultured. Almost half of them were Gram-positive cocci, the rest belonged to Gram-negative groups. This indicates that broad-spectrum antibiotics should be chosen first even before the diagnosis of causative organisms is established. 3. Soon after a per rectal administration of ABPC to children, high blood concentrations of the drug were observed by paper-disk method. 4. Eleven cases, which included 2 cases of pneumonia, of 15 children who suffered RTI and were given this antibiotic were greatly improved within 3-10 days. No serious side effects were observed. 5. Our brief study reported here indicates that ABPC administration by rectal route is safe and useful for the clinical treatment of RTI of children.