EVALUATION OF ORAL AUREOMYCIN FOR INTESTINAL ANTISEPSIS

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Abstract
Evaluation of oral aureomycin as a preoperative bowel sterilizing agent was made on 5 hospital patients. Two patients were normal individuals (from a gastro-intestinal viewpoint) from whom daily aerobic and anaerobic stool counts were made. Each received 1 g. of oral aureomycin three times daily during the period of study. Both showed a marked reduction in the Escherichia coli count after 2-4 days, the reduction amounting to 100-fold in one patient and 1000-fold in the other. Other Gram-positive and Gram-negative flora was reduced only slightly or not at all. Following the E. coli suppression, Proteus organisms multiplied rapidly resulting in a final over-all count higher than the original count. Three other patients had functioning colostomies from which frequent cultures were obtained. Intestinal organisms were cultured from each patient over periods ranging from 10 days to 1 month, with no suggestion of a diminution of the respective flora. Each was receiving therapeutic doses of aureomycin during the period of study. The conclusion was that oral aureomycin alone did not appear to be an efficient agent for reducing the colonic flora prior to surgery. Moreover, the use of the drug may be detrimental by stimulating the development of a resistant flora, such as Proteus.