Fibrin-antibiotic mixtures: an in vitro study assessing the possibility of using a biologic carrier for local drug delivery.

An in vitro study assessing the kinetics of drug release from antibiotic-fibrin seal compounds and the antibacterial efficacy of the delivered drug has been performed. Antibiotic sensitivity and the amount of drug released was measured by means of agar diffusion test. Standard and experimental curves were established for each antibiotic and each bacterial test in order to evaluate the quantities of the drug released during each 24 h period. The reconstitution of lyophilized human fibrin with an aqueous solution containing an antibiotic resulted in only minor modification of the clotting process, with the exception of those solutions containing cefotaxim and mezlocillin which failed to clot altogether and were excluded from further study. The evaluation of the kinetics of elution of the antibiotics from the fibrin clots showed that all of the antibiotics had been almost completely released by 96 h. The delivered amount of each drug was enough to maintain the Minimal Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) until the 4th day of culture for the most of antibiotics, resulting in a prolonged release of the drug.