IDENTIFICATION AND USE: Tobramycin is aminoglycoside antibiotic. HUMAN EXPOSURE AND TOXICITY: Serious allergic reactions including anaphylaxis and dermatologic reactions including exfoliative dermatitis, toxic epidermal necrolysis, erythema multiforme, and Stevens-Johnson Syndrome have been reported rarely in patients on tobramycin therapy. Although rare, fatalities have been reported. Adverse effects on both the vestibular and auditory branches of the eighth nerve have been noted, especially in patients receiving high doses or prolonged therapy, in those given previous courses of therapy with an ototoxin, and in cases of dehydration. Symptoms include dizziness, vertigo, tinnitus, roaring in the ears, and hearing loss. Hearing loss is usually irreversible and is manifested initially by diminution of high-tone acuity. Renal function changes, as shown by rising BUN, NPN, and serum creatinine and by oliguria, cylindruria, and increased proteinuria, have been reported, especially in patients with a history of renal impairment who are treated for longer periods or with higher doses than those recommended. Adverse renal effects can occur in patients with initially normal renal function. Clostridium difficile associated diarrhea has been reported with use of nearly all antibacterial agents, including Tobramycin for Injection, USP, and may range in severity from mild diarrhea to fatal colitis. ANIMAL STUDIES: Tobramycin applied as 5% eyedrops to rabbit eyes caused only mild conjunctival erythema. However, 0.3% tobramycin eyedrops interfered with healing of rabbit corneal endothelium. The mean number of dose days required to produce vestibulotoxic effects, demonstrated by impaired righting reflex or locomotor ataxia, was from 41 to 61 in cats dosed with tobramycin. Histologic examination of the cochleae revealed degeneration of the hair cells and supporting sensory structures in the majority of cats dosed with tobramycin at 40 and 80 mg/kg. Renal toxicity was observed in pregnant rats and their fetuses after maternal administration of high doses of tobramycin, 30 or 60 mg/kg/day fo 10 days, during organogenesis. The dose-related fetal renal toxicity consisted of granularity and swelling of proximal tubule cells, poor glomerular differentiation, and increased glomerular density.
Intravenous and intramuscular therapy with tobramycin is usually associated with no increase in rates of serum aminotransferase or bilirubin elevations. Only isolated case reports of acute liver injury with jaundice have been associated with aminoglycoside therapy including tobramycin, not all of which are very convincing. The hepatic injury is typically mixed but can evolve into a cholestatic hepatitis. The latency to onset is rapid, occurring within 1 to 3 weeks and is typically associated with skin rash, fever and sometimes eosinophilia. Recovery typically occurs within 1 to 2 months and chronic injury has not been described. Aminoglycosides are not mentioned in large case series of drug induced liver disease and acute liver failure; thus, hepatic injury due to tobramycin is rare if it occurs at all.
◉ Summary of Use during Lactation:Tobramycin is poorly excreted into breastmilk. Newborn infants apparently absorb small amounts of other aminoglycosides, but serum levels with typical three times per day dosages are far below those attained when treating newborn infections and systemic effects of tobramycin are unlikely. Older infants would be expected to absorb even less tobramycin. Because there is little variability in the milk tobramycin levels during multiple daily dose regimens, timing breastfeeding with respect to the dose is of little or no benefit in reducing infant exposure. Data are not available with single daily dose regimens. Monitor the infant for possible effects on the gastrointestinal flora, such as diarrhea, candidiasis (e.g., thrush, diaper rash) or rarely, blood in the stool indicating possible antibiotic-associated colitis.
Maternal use of an ear drop or eye drop that contains tobramycin presents little or no risk for the nursing infant. A task force respiratory experts from Europe, Australia and New Zealand found that inhaled tobramycin is compatible with breastfeeding.
◉ Effects in Breastfed Infants:An infant was breastfed (extent not stated) until the 4th month postpartum. At 2 months of age, his mother was given a 2-week course of tobramycin 150 mg three times daily plus meropenem for a cystic fibrosis exacerbation. infant displayed no change in stool pattern during the maternal treatment and had normal renal function at 6 months of age.
◉ Effects on Lactation and Breastmilk:Relevant published information was not found as of the revision date.
Concomitant and/or sequential use of an aminoglycoside and other systemic, oral, or topical drugs that have neurotoxic, ototoxic, or nephrotoxic effects (e.g., other aminoglycosides, acyclovir, amphotericin B, bacitracin, capreomycin, certain cephalosporins, colistin, cisplatin, methoxyflurane, polymyxin B, vancomycin) may result in additive toxicity and should be avoided, if possible. /Aminoglycosides/
Because of the possibility of an increased risk of ototoxicity due to additive effects or altered serum and tissue aminoglycoside concentrations, aminoglycosides should not be given concomitantly with potent diuretics such as ethacrynic acid, furosemide, urea, or mannitol. It has been suggested that concomitant use of certain anti-emetics that suppress nausea and vomiting of vestibular origin and vertigo (e.g., dimenhydrinate, meclizine) may mask symptoms of aminoglycoside-associated vestibular ototoxicity. /Aminoglycosides/
Tobramycin administered by inhalation in cystic fibrosis patients showed greater variability in sputum as compared to serum. After a single 112 mg dose, the serum Cmax was 1.02 ± 0.53 μg/mL, which was reached in one hour (Tmax), while the sputum Cmax was 1048 ± 1080 μg/g. Comparatively, for a 300 mg dose, the serum Cmax was 1.04 ± 0.58 μg/mL, which was also reached within one hour, while the sputum Cmax was 737 ± 1028 μg/g. The systemic exposure (AUC0-12) was also similar between the two doses, at 4.6 ± 2.0 μg∙h/mL for the 112 mg dose and 4.8 ± 2.5 μg∙h/mL for the 300 mg dose. When tobramycin was administered over a four-week cycle at 112 mg twice daily, the Cmax measured one hour after dosing ranged from 1.48 ± 0.69 μg/mL to 1.99 ± 0.59 μg/mL.