The New England journal of medicine
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Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical Trial
Dexamethasone therapy for bacterial meningitis. Results of two double-blind, placebo-controlled trials.
We enrolled 200 infants and older children with bacterial meningitis in two prospective double-blind, placebo-controlled trials to evaluate the efficacy of dexamethasone therapy in addition to either cefuroxime (Study 1) or ceftriaxone (Study 2). Altogether, 98 patients received placebo and 102 received dexamethasone (0.15 mg per kilogram of body weight every six hours for four days). At the beginning of therapy, the clinical and demographic characteristics of the patients in the treatment groups were comparable. ⋯ As compared with those who received placebo, the patients who received dexamethasone became afebrile earlier (1.6 vs. 5.0 days; P less than 0.001) and were less likely to acquire moderate or more severe bilateral sensorineural hearing loss (15.5 vs. 3.3 percent; P less than 0.01). Twelve patients in the two placebo groups (14 percent) had severe or profound bilateral hearing loss requiring the use of a hearing aid, as compared with 1 (1 percent) in the two dexamethasone groups (P less than 0.001). We conclude that dexamethasone is beneficial in the treatment of infants and children with bacterial meningitis, particularly in preventing deafness.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Intravenous immunoglobulin for the prevention of infection in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. A randomized, controlled clinical trial.
In a double-blind study, we randomly assigned 84 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia who were judged to be at increased risk of bacterial infection to receive intravenous immunoglobulin G (400 mg per kilogram of body weight) or a placebo every three weeks for one year. Eligible patients had hypogammaglobulinemia, a history of infection, or both. The patients receiving immunoglobulin had significantly fewer bacterial infections during the study period than those receiving placebo (23 vs. 42; P = 0.01). ⋯ There was no significant difference between the two groups in the incidence of nonbacterial infection. Immunoglobulin therapy was tolerated well; there were no serious adverse reactions, and the incidence of minor reactions was low. We conclude that selected patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia who are at risk of bacterial infection can be substantially protected from this complication by the regular intravenous administration of immunoglobulin.