PERIPHERAL NERVE INJURIES FROM ADMINISTRATION OF PENICILLIN:  Report of Four Clinical Cases

Toxic effects of penicillin have been described in experimental animals and human beings affecting the meninges, nerve fibers and the cerebral cortex. Walker, Johnson and Kollros¹ demonstrated that penicillin injected into the cortex of monkeys or men induced convulsions. They also showed, by duplicating their results with pure crystalline penicillin, that these convulsions were not due to impurities that may be found in crude penicillin. Walker and Johnson² and later Walker, Johnson and Kollros¹ demonstrated convulsions as an indication of toxicity when penicillin was applied to the cerebral cortex of cats, dogs, monkeys and human beings. They observed electroencephalographic changes which paralleled these convulsive and subconvulsive states. Borkowski and Forster³ stated the belief that these results might have been obtained from the intracortical injections, but later supported the work of Walker and his group by reproducing the convulsions and electroencephalographic changes by applying penicillin-soaked pledgets to