Tone audiometry control of children treated for meningitis with large intravenous doses of ampicillin.

Thirty-seven children treated for bacterial meningitis with ampicillin in high doses were followed up with audiometric control. Defects were recorded in 6 cases. Two of these were ascribed to chronic otosalpingitis. In 4 patients with sensorineural hearing loss, 3 were unilateral, and in only one case was the damage bilateral. Even here there was a previous history of hearing loss. A suggested ototoxicity of ampicillin could not be confirmed.