EFFECT OF NITROFURANTOIN (FURADANTIN) ON MORBIDITY AFTER TRANSURETHRAL PROSTATIC RESECTION

Abstract

The effectiveness of routine prophylactic chemotherapy was studied in a series of 183 patients after transurethral prostatic resection. A group of 53 patients received 100 mg. of nitrofurantoin (Furadantin) four times a day for two weeks; a group of 43 received half that dosage; and the remaining 87 were treated without this drug. Nitrofurantoin was found by tests in vitro to have the widest range of antibacterial activity of the 11 agents tested in this study. Nevertheless, fever occurred postoperatively with nearly equal frequency in all groups, and there was no significant difference in the degree of pyuria among the three groups six to eight weeks after operation. Extensive study of the bacterial species involved showed Pseudomonas species to be the organism most frequently encountered. Neither this organism nor Staphylococcus aureus were suppressed by the nitrofurantoin, but all the other organisms showed a marked decrease in incidence.