Possibilities of Adding Pulmonary Surfactant to Comprehensive Therapy of Patients with Respiratory Tuberculosis: Results of a Prospective Comparative Study

Abstract

The objective: to assess effectiveness and safety of the surfactant as part of comprehensive anti-tuberculosis therapy in pulmonary tuberculosis patients depending on the drug resistance pattern and HIV status.Subjects and Methods. 184 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis were enrolled in the study, of them 130 (70.7%) were men and 54 (29.3%) were women. All patients were randomized into Main Group (MG) and Control Group (CG). Surfactant therapy was added to comprehensive anti-tuberculosis therapy of the patients from Main Group. Additionally, each group was divided into subgroups based on HIV status.Results. The addition of surfactant therapy to comprehensive anti-tuberculosis therapy increases effectiveness of treatment improving such parameters as sputum conversion and cavity healing regardless of drug susceptibility pattern including patients with concomitant HIV infection. At the same time, the agent used for surfactant therapy demonstrated good tolerability.

Keywords

• surfactant
• drug resistance
• mycobacteria
• pulmonary tuberculosis
• hiv infection