Treatment of gonorrhea at the Venereal Disease Clinic in Copenhagen in 1985. A study of the efficacy of standardized treatment compared with the sensitivity of Gonococcus to penicillin in vitro

: In 1985, a total of 1,140 patients (907 men and 503 women) were treated for gonorrhoea at the Copenhagen County Outpatients Clinic at Rudolph Berghs Hospital. Failure of the standard treatment regimen (pivampicillin plus probenecid; patients stating penicillin allergy received a Sulfotrim-regimen) occurred in 79 (5.6%). A significant association between the in vitro susceptibility to penicillin and the efficacy of the standard treatment regimen was found; among 1,139 patients with uncomplicated urogenital gonorrhoea caused by penicillin susceptible gonococci, the failure rate was low (0.4-1.9%); the failure rate was high in patients infected with penicillin resistant gonococci. Continued surveillance of the in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility of gonococci is recommended as a basis for the choice of standard treatment regimen.