Lincomycin by direct intravitreal injection in the treatment of experimental bacterial endophthalmitis.

Abstract

Injection of solutions directly into the vitreous can be a safe and easily performed procedure. Our study demonstrated that a 1.5 mg dose of lincomycin into the rabbit vitreous was nontoxic to intraocular structures and produced high and significant concentrations of the drug that persisted for longer than two days. Intravitreal injection of lincomycin was highly efficacious in checking experimentally induced staphylococcal endophthalmitis. The response depended not only upon the amount of drug injected, but also, and much more crucial, upon its administration early in the course of the clinical infection. In endophthalmitis, the rate of progression of the destructive process increases in direct proportion to the delay in delivering antibiotics to the infected area. Our studies suggest that intravitreal injection of an appropriate antibiotic is the most prompt, most definitive therapy available for the preservation of vision.