Sustained delivery of tobramycin via tcpl delivery system to effectively treat osteomyelitis in rats - biomed 2010.

Osteomyelitis is usually treated with systemic antibiotics for prolonged periods of time. These therapies are often unsuccessful with an increase in complication risk to the patient. The development of local antibiotic carriers which are mechanically stable, and can degrade slowly are needed clinically to treat the large number of cases of osteomyelitis seen in a hospital setting. Tricalcium phosphate has been shown to deliver effect concentrations of various agents in a sustained manner over prolonged periods of time both in vitro and in vivo. The objective of this study was to design a tricalcium phosphate carrier to effectively deliver tobramycin to treat a Staphylococcus aureus infection in a rat femoral osteotomy model over a seven day period, and compare the bone response to animals receiving only a femoral osteotomy with a Staphylococcus aureus infection and no treatment. Active osteomyelitis with bone loss was seen in animals with infection only. The presence of an inflammatory fibrous infiltrate was also evident in this group of animals. Administration of tobramycin via the TCPL carrier was able to reduce the associated bone loss and fibrous inflammatory filtrate. The carrier was able to deliver effective therapeutic levels of tobramycin and has the potential to be formulated to release the drug components for short or long durations by modifying the physiochemical parameters of the device.