Prevention of Death in Escherichia Coli (ld100) Shock.

This study was designed to determine the efficacy of maintenance infusions of methylprednisolone sodium succinate and gentamicin sulfate in live Escherichia coli organism shock. Twenty-three conditioned dogs were anesthetized, instrumented aseptically, infused for one hour with approximately 9.5 x 10 to the 9th power organisms per kilogram, studied for 6 hours and observed for 7 days or until death. All seven untreated dogs died within 24 hours following variable periods of hypoglycemia, hemoconcentration, intestinal hemorrhage, diarrhea, and acidemia. Six dogs were treated with a total of 60 milligrams per kilogram methylprednisolone sodium succinate slowly infused at 15, 90 and 300 minutes following onset of Escherichia coli administration. Author A infused at 65, 180 and 300 minutes, with 4.0 milligrams per kilogram gentamicin sulfate given intramuscularly at 360 minutes and daily for 3 days. The six treated dogs maintained normal bloodd glucose and pH values during the initial 6-hour period, and adverse intestinal findings were absent. These treated animals were sacrificed 6 to 7 days later in a healthy state. Ten additional animals received the same regiment of either steroid or antibiotic and nine die within 36 hours. Findings stress the importance of maintenance infusions of both steroid and antibiotic agents following lethal Escherichia coli administration.