Twice-daily penicillin in the treatment of streptococcal pharyngitis

M. A. Gerber, L. J. Spadaccini, L. L. Wright, L. Deutsch and E. L. Kaplan

An investigation was performed to compare the effectiveness of oral penicillin V given twice daily with penicillin V given three times daily in the treatment of group A beta-hemolytic streptococcal (GABHS) pharyngitis. Patients were randomly assigned to receive 250 mg of penicillin V either two or three times daily for ten days. Overall, 23 (23%) of 99 patients had the same strain of GABHS isolated from their follow-up as from their initial throat culture and were considered to have bacteriologic-treatment failures. Of the 50 patients in the three-times-daily group, nine (18%) had bacteriologic-treatment failures, while 14 (28.5%) of 49 patients in the twice-daily group had bacteriologic-treatment failures. The results of this and earlier investigations suggest that penicillin V given twice daily is as effective as penicillin V given three times daily for the treatment of GABHS pharyngitis.

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