The effect of Neosporin eye drop against Pseudomonas infections of the eye was investigated experimentally in rabbits.
Experimental Pseudomonas conjunctivitis was produced in 8 eyes by instillation of suspensions of the organism cultured in broth medium for 24 hours. All eyes developed severe purulent conjunctivitis. Untreated control eyes (2 eyes) showed copious discharge which persisted for one week. When treated with Neosporin drop every 2 hours beginning from 24 hours after the inoculation, discharge disappeared markedly and promptly and all ocular signs became normal by two days of treatment.
Induction of Pseudomonas corneal ulcer was effectively carried out by passing through the superficial corneal stroma with a fine needle thread with 6-0 silk which had dipped into a broth culture solution previously, combined with cauterization of a lacrimal punctum. Within 24 hours, there appeared corneal ulcer with conjunctivitis. Untreated two eyes showed hypopyon and extensive ulceration which finally perforated and became atrophic after one week. Instillation of Neosporin every two hours was done 24 hours after the inoculation resulted in moderate improvement of corneal ulcer which was apparent after couple days of treatment. At. the end of 20 days of treatment; 4 eyes of 6 showed good response (localized corneal opacity), 1 eye was bad (extensive corneal scarring) and 1 eye was lost due to atrophy of eyeball.
Colistin, also effective against Pseudomonas infection, was also instilled in 4 rabbit´s eyes with Pseudomonas corneal--ulcer-in a- concentration of 100,000 units/ml every 2 hours. The results seemed to be inferior to that obtained by Neosporin. The final outcome after 20 days of treatment was, good in one eye, bad in 2 eyes and lost in 1 eye.
Neosporin was tried in clinical patients with various ocular infectious diseases. Shortening of treatment period and milder course were noted in bacterial infections, namely, 8 cases of acute catarrhal conjunctivitis due to Pneumococcus and Koch-Weeks bacillus, 4 cases of angular blepharoconjunctivitis, 5 cases of hordeolum, 2 cases of gonococcal conjunctivitis and one case of Pseudomonas corneal ulcer. No effect was noted in viral diseases epidemic keratoconjunctivitis and pharyngoconjunctival fever.
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