The Salts Derived from the Combination of Streptomycin and Neomycin with Glucuronic Acid: The First Experimental Research on the Antibacterial Power and Ototoxic Effects of These Salts

Abstract

Streptomycin The neurotoxic effects of streptomycin (given in the form of sulfate or hydrochlorate) on man's cochleovestibular structures, noted first by Brown and Hinshaw⁴in 1946, were confirmed later by many other experimental and clinical observations. It was thus possible to ascertain that streptomycin has an elective neurotoxic action on the structures connected with the vestibular branch of the eighth nerve, while such electivity appears less noticeable on structures connected with the cochlear branch of the same nerve. Streptomycin causes pathological lesions on peripheral cells having highly differentiated specific functions. Only the alterations of the vestibular system are subject to functional compensations of central nature with the passing of time, though the pathological damage still remains unaltered. The acoustic damage must be considered irreversible both morphologically and functionally. Therefore cochleovestibular lesions caused by streptomycin do not seem to be affected by any therapeutic treatment. Dihydrostreptomycin synthesis was the first