Treatment of anorectal gonorrhea infections in men

M. Sands

The charts of 606 men with anorectal gonorrhea infections treated using the current Public Health Service recommendations were reviewed. There were 3.3% failures in the group treated with penicillin--14.4% in those treated with tetracycline hydrochloride, 14.8% in the ampicillin trihydrate group, and none among those treated with spectinomycin hydrochloride. The intramuscular (IM) injection of penicillin G procaine, 4.8 million units, with 1 g of probenicid given orally is the treatment of choice for anorectal gonorrhea. An IM injection of 2 g of spectinomycin hydrochloride was effective but should be reserved for patients allergic to penicillin and for penicillin treatment failures.