BONE MARROW DEPRESSION FROM CHLORAMPHENICOL

Abstract

IN RECENT months several reports have appeared incriminating chloramphenicol as an etiological agent in bone marrow depression.¹ Most of these reports have described patients with an established anemia and hypoplastic marrow who gave a history of having received varying amounts of chloramphenicol.² A few have described patients in whom neutropenia developed during a course of the antibiotic.³ The present article reports serial observations on a patient who, while undergoing hematological study for other purposes, showed evidence of depression of erythropoiesis and of granulopoiesis during an episode of treatment with chloramphenicol. REPORT OF CASE History. —A 51-year-old white man, an electrician, was admitted on Feb. 11, 1952, to the James Ewing Hospital with a complaint of anemia of four years' duration. Four years before admission he consulted his local physician for a check-up, although he felt entirely well and had not sought medical consultation for the preceding 20