The increasing importance of sulfanilamide and its derivatives as part of the therapeutic armamentarium of the ophthalmologist has made it imperative that more be known of the ability of these drugs to penetrate into the eye. This is of particular importance when they are employed in combating intraocular infections. These drugs exert their maximum therapeutic effect only with satisfactory concentrations at the site of the infection. Were this concentration impossible, employment of the drugs would be of little value.
Three drugs have been extensively used clinically in the treatment of infections, namely, sulfanilamide, sulfapyridine (2-[paraaminobenzenesulfonamido]-pyridine) and sulfathiazole (2-[paraaminobenzenesulfonamido]-thiazole). The literature on their use is too well known and extensive to warrant review of it here. Suffice it to say that their worth has been well proved.
Comprehensive studies on the concentration of these commonly used drugs in the aqueous have not as yet been done. Rambo1 and Bellows and