Antibiotic treatment of renal carbuncle.

Renal carbuncles in seven young males were successfully treated with long-term administration of penicillinase-resistant antibiotics. Selective renal arteriography provided an accurate means of diagnosis and permitted a trial of medical therapy. All patients experienced a prompt and sustained clincial remission; surigical exploration was thus obviated in all but one instance, in which post-treatment radiographic changes persisted.