TUBERCULOUS MENINGITIS IN CHILDREN

Abstract

Sulfones and streptomycin are the first therapeutic agents to provide encouraging results in the management of previously fatal forms of tuberculosis. Since 1944, "promizole" (4,2′-diaminophenyl-5′-thiazolyl sulfone) has been used in the Chest Clinic of the Children's Medical Service, Bellevue Hospital.¹ The use of "promizole' 'in miliary tuberculosis has produced encouraging results. Of 7 patients treated for more than a month, 5 are living and well. Three of these patients have been followed more than three years with no recurrence of the disease and no new manifestations of hematogenous dissemination. However, treatment of tuberculous meningitis with "promizole" alone was unsuccessful. Five successive patients died six to twenty-five days after treatment was begun, and pathologic examination of the brains in 2 cases showed no demonstrable retardation of the disease. Cooke, Dunphy and Blake² were the first to report the use of streptomycin intrathecally in human tuberculous meningitis. The patient, an