Ceftriaxone as effective as benzylpenicillin in managing neurosyphilis: Lancet
Recent research results suggest that ceftriaxone is similarly effective to benzylpenicillin for the treatment of neurosyphilis, potentially decreasing the length of hospital stay. The interesting findings have been put forth in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
Intravenous benzylpenicillin is the gold-standard treatment for neurosyphilis, but it requires prolonged hospitalisation. Ceftriaxone is a possible alternative treatment, the effectiveness of which remains unclear. A team of researchers under Thomas Bettuzzi, from Assistance Publique–Hôpitaux de Paris, France, aimed to assess the effectiveness of ceftriaxone compared with benzylpenicillin in the treatment of neurosyphilis.
For the study design,the team did a retrospective multicentre study including patients with neurosyphilis who were treated at one of eight tertiary care centres in France, from Jan 1, 1997, to Dec 31, 2017. They defined neurosyphilis as positive treponemal and non-treponemal tests and at least one of otic syphilis, ocular syphilis, either neurological symptom with a positive result on cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)-VDRL or CSF-PCR tests, or more than five leukocytes in a CSF cell count. Patients with neurosyphilis were identified from the medical information department database of each centre and assigned to one of two groups on the basis of the initial treatment received (ie, benzylpenicillin group or ceftriaxone group).
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