Failure of High Dosage Valium in the Treatment of Neonatal Tetanus

Authors

  • Tjandra Husada Department of Child Health, Universitas Sam Ratulangi/Gunung Wenang Hospital, Manado, North Sulawesi
  • Muzief Munir Department of Child Health, Universitas Sam Ratulangi/Gunung Wenang Hospital, Manado, North Sulawesi

Keywords:

valium; neonatal tetanus; high dose valium

Abstract

The fact that the mortality rate of neonatal tetanus is still high, and that the use of high dosage of valium has been reported to be of no side effect, encouraged the authors to use a high dosage of valium in the treatment of neonatal tetanus particularly in severe cases.

This study was performed on 35 cases using 20-30 mg/kg bw/day of valium from July 1, 1976 through October 1977.

The outcome of this study indicates that the treatment of neonatal tetanus using high dosage valium remained poor, where 22 out of 35 cases died (62.9%) with the following specifications: all of 6 mild cases survived, 2 out of 6 of moderate cases died, 20 out of 23 severe cases died.

The authors believe that the simplest and the more effective way to overcome this disease is to give either tetanus prophylaxis to expectant mothers or 1500 U ATS prophylaxis to every newborn delivered by a traditional midwife (dukun bersalin).

References

1. FEMI- PEARSE, D. Experience with diazepam in tetanus. Br. med. J. 2 : 862 (1966).
2. GANENDRAN, A. Intensive therapy in neonatal tetanus; Anaesthesia 29 : 356 (1974).
3. HENDRICKSE, R.G. and SHERMAN, P.M. : Tetanus in childhood; a report of a therapeutic trial of diazepam. Br. med. J. 2 : 860 (1966).
4. HERRERO, J. : Valium as a muscle relaxant; in Eckmann's Principles on Te· tanus, pp. 535 - 545 (Huber, Berne 1967).
5. RANDALL, L.O.: Pharmacological and clinical studies on valium; a new psychothcrapeutic agent of the benzodiaze paine class. Curr. Ther. Res. 3:405 (1961) (Cited by Herrero, 1967).
6. SANDERS, R.K.M. and JOSEPH, R. : Tetanus; successful treatment in rural situation. Trop. Doct. 7 : 99 (1977).
7. THOMAS, J.; AUBRY, P.; ROSSO, A.M.; HERAUT, L.; NELLY, A.M. and LHOSTE, F. : Tetanos neonatal traitment par l'administration orale de diazepam et l'alimentation precoce par sonde nasogastrique.Bull. Soc. Path. Ex. 3 : 373 (1972).
8. TJANDRA, H. and MUNIR, M. : Neo natal tetanus; an analysis oi 108 cases using a scoring system. Proc. Second Asian Cong. Pediatr. Jakarta, 3-6 August 1976 p. 462.

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Published

2019-09-20

How to Cite

1.
Husada T, Munir M. Failure of High Dosage Valium in the Treatment of Neonatal Tetanus. PI [Internet]. 2019Sep.20 [cited 2025Apr.21];20(3-4):51-6. Available from: https://paediatricaindonesiana.org/index.php/paediatrica-indonesiana/article/view/2319

Issue

Vol. 20 No. 3-4 (1980): March - April 1980

Section

Infection & Tropical Pediatrics

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