Pharmacokinetic and toxicological evaluation of a once-daily regimen versus conventional schedules of netilmicin and amikacin.

The safety and pharmacokinetics of netilmicin (6.6 mg/kg) and amikacin (14.5 mg/kg) once daily (od) have been compared to their corresponding conventional schedules thrice daily (tid), and twice daily (bd), in patients (20 per group) suffering from pelvic inflammatory disease. Sensitive criteria of early renal and auditory alterations, namely urinary excretion of phospholipids and audiometry over a wide frequency range (0.25-18 kHz), respectively, were used. The first criterion (phospholipiduria) was validated by an animal study which demonstrated that rats receiving poly-L-aspartic acid, which protects against gentamicin-induced nephrotoxicity, are also protected against renal phospholipidosis and phospholipiduria caused by this antibiotic. On that basis, netilmicin od was better tolerated than netilmicin tid. Amikacin caused less phospholipiduria than netilmicin, and, given od, resulted in little increase over baseline (95% CI, 95-147% increase). Reduction in threshold by greater than or equal to 15 dB for frequencies between 10-18 kHz occurred in nine of 19 patients receiving netilmicin tid compared with three or four of 19 or 20 patients treated with netilmicin od or amikacin (od or bd). However, changes at lower frequencies (0.25-8 kHz) were infrequent with all regimens (from 0/19 to 2/20). In conclusion, these very sensitive tests of nephro- and oto-toxicity suggest that od dosing of amikacin or netilmicin is, if anything, safer than bd or tid dosing.