Seventy six cases of tuberculous meningitis admitted to the Institute of Child Health and
Hospital for Children, Madras were treated with a regimen of rifampicin, isoniazid and streptomycin
daily for two months, followed by streptomycin twice a week plus ethambutol and isoniazid daily
for 4 months. Treatment with isoniazid and ethambutol daily was continued for a further period of
6 months. In the earlier part of the study. isoniazid was prescribed in a dosage of 20 mg/kg. It was
noted that about half of the children on isoniazid 20 mg/kg developed clinical jaundice with elevated
levels of serum bilirubin and SGOT and SGPT levels. It was considered likely that the ‘high dosage
of isoniazid might have contributed to the high incidence ofjaundice and hence the dosage of the same
was reduced to 12 mg/kg. With the reduced dosage of isoniazid, the incidence of jaundice was much
lower, namely 20 %. 54 patients have so far completed the treatment period of 1 year. 13 of these died
after admission to the study. The clinical and laboratory findings are presented
