Findings from lingual scrapings taken during treatment with chloramphenicol and aureomycin.

In a previous paper (Tomaszewski, 1951) a survey was made of the side-effects of chloramphenicol and aureomycin treatment. These were divided into general, gastro-intestinal, genito-rectal, and oral manifestations. Changes in the oral cavity were found more frequently than in other parts of the body. They consisted of dryness of the mouth, throat manifestations, angular stomatitis, and changes in the oral mucous membranes. Striking changes were seen in the dorsum of the tongue; the most common was the disappearance of the normal whitish coating with some degree of atrophy in the filiform papillae, and in extreme cis-s marked atrophic glossitis with redness and soreness of the tongue. However, cases were also observed in which there was hypertrophy of the mucosa (hypertrophic glossitis) with overgrowth of the filiform papillae and brown discoloration. This discoloration was also sometimes seen in cases with some degree of atrophy of the papillae. The present paper describes in detail the miscroscopical examinations of the lingual scrapings. The findings are correlated with the pathological changes which develop in the tongue during chloramphenicol and aureomycin therapy. The investigations were made on 126 patients treated with these antibiotics for various infective conditions in the wards of the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh.