Abstract
Summary
The absorption and excretion of bacitracin have been studied in the dog. Only small fractions of the oral dose were recovered in the stool. Since none was found in the blood or urine after oral administration and little was found in the feces, it appears that the antibiotic was largely destroyed in the gastro-intestinal tract. Following parenteral administration of large single doses, significant concentrations of the drug persisted in the blood stream for as long as 7 or 8 hours. Other than slight and transient central effects produced by excessively rapid intravenous injection, the animals showed no apparent signs of toxicity in spite of the fact that doses as high as 6,000 units per kg body weight were administered. The recovery of the drug in the urine appeared, in general, to increase in direct ratio to the dose administered, but the recoveries were widely variable. Significant concentrations of bacitracin persisted in the urine for more than 7 hours after administration of a single dose of the antibiotic. Bacitracin is not freely diffusible. It did not penetrate the red blood cell, nor did it enter the spinal fluid freely.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.