Inhalation Surfactant Therapy within Comprehensive Treatment of HIV-Infected Patients with Multiple Drug Resistant Tuberculosis

The objective: to evaluate the main eff ects of surfactant inhalations during the intensive phase of chemotherapy with the regimen containing bedaquiline and linezolid in HIV-infected patients with multiple drug resistant tuberculosis. Subjects and Methods. A single-center, open-label, controlled prospective cohort study was conducted. 80 patients with MDR-TB/HIV were enrolled in the study and randomized into two groups: ST+ Group included 40 patients who in addition to anti-tuberculosis therapy containing bedaquiline and linezolid during the intensive phase received inhalation of the suspension of Surfactant-BL according to a certain regimen. The course of 28 inhalations took 2 months, the total dose of surfactant was 700 mg. ST- Group included 40 patients who received anti-tuberculosis therapy only. To assess the severity of respiratory symptoms in patients, we used our own scoring. All patients also received antiretroviral therapy. Results. In the ST+ Group versus ST- Group, there was a decrease in the severity of tuberculosis clinical manifestations and timing of their relief, higher frequency of cavity healing by 21.2%, and faster sputum conversion by 28.6%. These rates are higher than in ST- Group and this is a short period of 10 weeks. None of the patients developed adverse reactions to surfactant inhalations. Patients tolerated well the combination of surfactant therapy, MDR TB chemotherapy containing bedaquiline and linezolid, and ART.