Peripheral neuropathy with ethambutol.

Introduction Ethambutol is a promising antituberculous drug which has been proposed as a replacement for PAS in the first-line triple therapy of tuberculosis. This suggestion is based on its equal or possible superior effectiveness in man, compared with PAS (Donomae & Yamamoto, 1966; Bobrowitz, 1966), whilst having few toxic effects in the doses at present recommended (Tubercle, 1966; Tiburtius, 1970). Ethambutol is well-documented as the cause of optic neuritis (Leibold, 1966) but an extensive search of the literature has revealed no previous published case reports of peripheral neuropathy. The following three instances of peripheral neuropathy, associated with ethambutol therapy, are presented as further evidence of its neurotoxicity.