Treatment of non-gonococcal urethritis with intramuscular tetracycline (terramycin).

The place of oral oxytetracycline hydrochloride (Terramycin) therapy in the treatment of nongonococcal urethritis (N.G.U.) is well established (Harkness, 1953; Willcox, 1957; Morton and Read, 1957). Success rates of about 85 per cent. are above those obtained by other antibiotics, sulphomanides, or a combination of these. The trial reported below was undertaken at a time when a degree of penicillin resistance was being reported in the treatment of gonococcal urethritis (King, 1958; Curtis and Wilkinson, 1958). The continued success of streptomycin in gonorrhoea was also questioned (Alergant, 1958). At this time, therefore, a need to treat gonorrhoea with a different antibiotic seemed likely to arise. Terramycin appeared to be the best choice, as its success in the treatment of gonorrhoea was well recognized (Willcox, 1957; Marmel and Prigot, 1955), and it had the added advantage that it would probably prevent the appearance of N.G.U. after the successful treatment of gonococcal urethritis. Intramuscular tetracycline (Achromycin) used by Marmell and Prigot (1955) gave rise to local pain, and a trial of intramuscular terramycin therapy was therefore undertaken.