Abstract
Septic arthritis is considered one of the most severe disorders that affect horses’ joints. Therapy is intended to eliminate the microorganisms that cause this infection. The intravenous administration of antibiotics is an easily performed technique, but there is no guarantee that the antibiotics will reach the joint milieu at high concentrations and remain elevated for a certain period of time. This study aimed to determine and compare the levels of gentamicin in the plasma and synovial fluid of healthy horses after intravenous administration for seven days. Five horses received 6.6 mg/kg intravenous gentamicin every 24 h for seven consecutive days. Blood and synovial fluid samples were collected from the right metacarpal-phalangeal joint before the start of the treatment (T0) and after 6 h (T6), 12 h (T12), and every 24 h during antibiotic therapy for seven days (D1 to D7). The levels of gentamicin in serum and synovial fluid were quantified by Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). The intravenous administration of 6.6 mg/kg of gentamicin, in horses, after a period of 24 h, promotes synovial fluid concentrations below the MIC of the drug, in spite of reaching high plasma concentrations of gentamicin, daily mean serum concentration which was 29-fold higher than the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the drug. The intravenous administration every 24 h during seven consecutive days did not cause systemic side effects, such as hepatic or renal injury.
Highlights
Septic arthritis is considered one of the most severe disorders that affect horses’ joints
The concentration or dosedependent bactericidal activity of gentamicin is related to its peak serum levels, with important residual bacteriostatic activity, which reflects the maintenance of bacterial growth suppression even when serum concentrations of the drug are lower than the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) (Spinosa 2006)
An elevation of serum concentration of gentamicin was observed at T6 and T12, followed by a reduction, which remained stable from D1 to D4
Summary
Septic arthritis is considered one of the most severe disorders that affect horses’ joints. This study aimed to determine and compare the levels of gentamicin in the plasma and synovial fluid of healthy horses after intravenous administration for seven days. The intravenous administration every 24 h during seven consecutive days did not cause systemic side effects, such as hepatic or renal injury. The joints and their adjacent tissues, like cartilage and synovial membrane, are predisposed sites for bacterial infection, due to reduced vascularization and reduced oxygen, leading to septic arthritis (Meijer et al 2000; Taylor et al 2010). It is hypothesized that the intravenous administration of an antibiotic for the treatment of joint infections can be responsible for bacterial resistance to the drug and persistence of the disease
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