On the tactics of penicillin treatment for patients with pneumonia

The effectiveness of intramuscular administration of usual (800 thousand units per day) and increased (12 million units per day) doses of benzylpenicillin in 281 patients with acute, prolonged and chronic pneumonia was studied. Increased doses of the drug had a therapeutic effect in 80% of patients in whom its use in usual doses was unsuccessful. When using higher doses, the dependence of the effect of penicillin on the resistance to it of the coccal flora isolated from the sputum of patients was leveled. The high efficiency of penicillin therapy led to the conclusion that gram-positive cocci play a decisive role in the etiology of pneumonia. It was concluded that it is advisable to prescribe higher doses of benzylpenicillin intramuscularly in the absence of the effect of using it in usual doses, only if the intramuscular administration of high doses of benzylpenicillin is unsuccessful, one should switch to intravenous infusions or use semisynthetic drugs.