Abstract: Objective  To observe the effect on retreatment tuberculosis patients by levofloxacin combined with rifabutin. Methods  One hundred and seventy-two retreated TB cases were randomly divided into group A and group B, with 86 cases in each group. The patients in group A were treated with levofloxacin combined with rifabutin (levofloxacin 0.6 g/d, rifabutin 0.3 g/d, qd, PO), and the patients in group B were treated with streptomycin combined with rifampicin (streptomycin 0.75/d, qd, im; rifampicin 0.45 g/d, qd, PO). The sputum negative conversion rates after 8 months’ treatment, the sputum culture positive rates, the absorption rates of lesion and the cavity closure rates of the two groups after treatment were compared. Chi-square test was used to analysis and P<0.05 was set as the criteria of statistical significance. Results  The sputum conversion rate, the sputum culture positive rate, the lesions total absorption rate and the cavity closure rate of group A were 85.7% (72/84), 3.6% (3/84), 95.2% (80/84) and 78.8% (41/52) respectively, while those of group B were 58.5% (48/82), 14.6% (12/82), 61.0% (50/82) and 50.0% (24/48) respectively. The differences were significant between the two groups in all the indexes: the sputum conversion rate (χ²=61.9, P<0.01), the sputum culture positive rate (χ²=25.0, P<0.01), lesions total absorptivity rate (χ²=116.6, P<0.01) and cavity closure rate (χ²=28.8, P<0.01). Conclusion  The effect of levofloxacin combined with rifabutin on retreated TB patients is better than that of streptomycin combined with rifampicin. The sputum negative conversion, lesions absorption and cavity closure is significantly improved with the new treatment regimen.

Key words: Tuberculosis, pulmonary/drug therapy, Ofloxacin, Rifabutin, Drug therapy, combination, Treatment outcome