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Previous Volume 296:1380-1383 June 16, 1977 Number 24 Next

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Abstract

To evaluate guidelines for outpatient treatment of acute pelvic inflammatory disease recommended by the Center for Disease Control we studied 197 afflicted women. The women were treated either with tetracycline or with procaine penicillin and ampicillin, and 92% were subsequently seen at least once to assess efficacy of clinical and microbiologic treatment. Neisseria gonorrhoeae was isolated from the lower genital tract in 68% of these women, and although they had a quicker symptomatic response than those with nongonococcal infection (P less than 0.01), the two regimens were equally effective in producing clinical cure. However, subsequent identification of a pelvic abscess was 10 times more common in women from whom N. gonorrhoeae was not isolated. Therapy for pelvic inflammatory disease must be empirical since it is impossible to distinguish clinically between gonococcal and nongonococcal infection, and our data indicate that both regimens recommended by the Center for Disease Control are effective.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Smith, M. S., Eschenbach, D. A. (1980). Pelvic Inflammatory Disease: A Review. CLIN PEDIATR 19: 791-796 [Abstract]  
• (1979). Infectious Diseases: An Annotated Bibliography of Recent Literature: References to Journal Articles and Other Papers. ANN INTERN MED 90: 281-286 [Abstract]