Potassium Toxicity Due to Intravenous Penicillin Therapy

Malcolm H. Moss; Aaron R. Rausen

doi:10.1542/peds.29.6.1032a

Potassium Toxicity Due to Intravenous Penicillin Therapy

PEDIATRICS ◽

10.1542/peds.29.6.1032a ◽

1962 ◽

Vol 29 (6) ◽

pp. 1032-1034

Author(s):

Malcolm H. Moss ◽

Aaron R. Rausen

Keyword(s):

Potassium Salt ◽

Bacterial Infections ◽

Rapid Infusion ◽

Penicillin Therapy

Extremely large doses of penicillin given intravenously are regularly used by many in the treatment of severe bacterial infections. Attention has been called to the possibility that potassium toxicity might result from the rapid infusion of large doses of the potassium salt of penicillin, which is the commonly used preparation.1,2 In mice, the toxicity of intravenously injected penicillin has been shown to be due to the cation used in the preparation with the potassium salt being the most toxic form.3,4

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Thirty years of penicillin therapy

Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspb.1971.0098 ◽

1971 ◽

Vol 179 (1057) ◽

pp. 293-319 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Keyword(s):

Staphylococcus Aureus ◽

Bacterial Infections ◽

Clinical Medicine ◽

Large Majority ◽

General Consensus ◽

Therapeutic Control ◽

Penicillin Therapy ◽

Chemotherapeutic Activity ◽

First Time

Three decades have passed since the publication in the Lancet (Abraham et al . 1941) of the paper by our group at Oxford in which it was, for the first time, reported that the mould metabolite penicillin exhibited remarkable chemotherapeutic effects in clinical bacterial infections, including those caused by Staphylococcus aureus , against which no member of the only then known group of antibacterials possessing in vivo chemotherapeutic activity, the sulphonamides, was fully effective. A year earlier, in 1940, we had published, also in the Lancet (Chain et al . 1940), our first paper on the chemotherapeutic power of penicillin in experimental bacterial infections in mice which was dramatic and of unprecedented magnitude. The introduction into clinical medicine of penicillin therapy and of the antibiotics therapy stemming from it has, by general consensus of opinion, completely revolutionized the treatment of bacterial infections in both man and animals, and rendered the large majority of them, including the most severe ones, amenable to successful therapeutic control.

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Intrahepatic Retention of Bile in Severe Bacterial Infections

Gastroenterology ◽

10.1016/s0016-5085(19)34672-4 ◽

1964 ◽

Vol 47 (6) ◽

pp. 590-599 ◽

Cited By ~ 42

Author(s):

H. Fahrländer ◽

F. Huber ◽

F. Gloor

Keyword(s):

Bacterial Infections

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Data Watch: Cost of Hospital Stay Up 102% for Viral Infections, 91% for Bacterial Infections

Pediatric News ◽

10.1016/s0031-398x(10)70500-2 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 44 (11) ◽

pp. 16

Keyword(s):

Hospital Stay ◽

Bacterial Infections ◽

Viral Infections

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Lab Tests Find More Infants' Bacterial Infections

Pediatric News ◽

10.1016/s0031-398x(08)70303-5 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 42 (7) ◽

pp. 14

Author(s):

BETSY BATES

Keyword(s):

Bacterial Infections

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Prevotella melaninogenica Meningitis and Abscess: A Complication of the Removal of a Midline Dermoid Cyst

Journal of Pediatric Infectious Diseases ◽

10.1055/s-0038-1653982 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 15 (03) ◽

pp. 152-154

Author(s):

Megan B. Garcia ◽

Anjali N. Kunz

Keyword(s):

Dermoid Cyst ◽

Bacterial Infections ◽

Surgical Excision ◽

Sinus Tract ◽

Neural Tube Closure ◽

Intracranial Extension ◽

Dermal Sinus ◽

Oral Flora ◽

Prevotella Melaninogenica ◽

Dermal Sinus Tract

Abstract Prevotella species are gram-negative anaerobic commensal bacteria of the oropharynx, which frequently cause periodontal disease but are otherwise rarely implicated in serious bacterial infections. Cranial dermoid cysts are benign neoplasms that grow along the planes of the embryonic neural tube closure. In infants, they most commonly present in frontal locations, including periorbital, nasal, and within the anterior fontanelle. Although dermoid cysts are slow growing, usually uncomplicated, and easily treated definitively with surgical excision, cranial cysts located on the midline are associated with a higher risk for persistent dermal sinus tract with intracranial extension of the tumor. We describe a case of a 10-month-old male patient with an occipital midline dermoid cyst with intracranial extension, infected with Prevotella melaninogenica, and complicated by intracranial abscess formation and meningitis.This case highlights two unusual disease entities: the uncommon occipital location of a dermoid cyst, and complications of that cyst caused by a serious bacterial infection with a normal oral flora. We discuss the recommendation for neuroimaging prior to surgical excision of a midline dermoid cyst, given the risk for dermal sinus tract with intracranial communication. We also discuss potential mechanisms for bacterial inoculation of this cyst with Prevotella melaninogenica. This pathogen has not previously been reported as a complication of dermoid cysts.

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