One-session treatment of gonorrhoea in males with procaine penicillin plus probenecid

Abstract

Summary: Six hundred and thirteen male patients with acute uncomplicated gonorrhoea have been treated alternately with single injections of 1·2 mega-units of aqueous procaine penicillin alone or with the same dose and preparation of penicillin with an additional 1·0 g of probenecid given orally immediately prior to injection. Whether the failure rates were assessed on the basis of an absence of further sexual exposure or by classifying all recurrences within 1 or 2 weeks regardless of history as treatment failures the results were significantly better when probenecid was also given. The use of a single dose of probenecid is thus capable of maintaining the success of single injection procedures for the treatment of gonorrhoea based on procaine penicillin and thus represents a bulwark for the future should the powers of penicillin against the gonococcus in London deteriorate further.