Evaluation of therapeutic effectiveness of antituberculosis injection based on conversion time in drug-resistant tuberculosis

Drug-resistant tuberculosis is a condition in which Mycobacterium tuberculosis is resistant to first-line anti-tuberculosis drugs, namely isoniazid and rifampicin, which are the two most effective anti-tuberculosis agents. Conversion time is a parameter to assess whether the therapeutic effect of injection has been achieved by carrying out two acid-resistant bacilli (ARB) sputum examinations within a maximum period of 2 consecutive months. Kanamycin and capreomycin are injectable drugs that are used in the intensive phase. This cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate the therapeutic effect of injection using ARB sputum conversion time and to analyze other factors related to ARB sputum conversion time. The study used retrospective data from patients’ medical records, collected with purposive sampling technique. The results of the study showed that from 101 patients who met the inclusion criteria 57.4% used kanamycin and 42.6% received capreomycin. The therapeutic effect was achieved in 87.1%. There was no significant correlation between the type of injection therapy and therapeutic effectiveness (p-value = 0.983). In conclusion, therapy using injections for drug-resistant tuberculosis is effective but still requires close monitoring due to the high adverse drug reaction (ADR).