[Chemotherapy of tuberculosis--compliance, side effects and incidence of recurrence]

In the years 1977-1980 290 patients were treated for pulmonary tuberculosis with standardized therapy: for the first five months isoniazid (INH), ethambutol (EMB) and rifampicin; INH and EMB were then continued for a total of up to 9-18 months (average 15 months). The patients' own physicians accepted the recommended duration of therapy in 85% of cases. During hospitalization, 96% of tests for INH in the urine were positive. Side effects, primarily consisting of elevated transaminases, were observed in 48% of the patients. 21-63 months after the beginning of therapy, reexamination of 220 of the patients showed 2 failures and 5 relapses. The relapses can be attributed to poor patient compliance (3 patients), a slow healing process with negative cultures only after 2 or more months of therapy (3 patients) and/or too short duration of therapy: 3 of the 7 patients treated for less than 9 months suffered relapses. Before administering short term therapy of 9 months or less in Switzerland it is necessary to take into consideration the age distribution, history and stage of the disease in the patients and our system of health care by family physicians.