Abstract

AN UNABRIDGED ARTICLE ON COLISTIN

Arya Rose Wilson, Nandhini R. K., Tania Joseph, L. Britto Durai Singh*

ABSTRACT

Colistin is a higher end antibiotic which is more frequently used in the critical cases. Colistin binds to the outer cell membrane of the gram negative bacteria and disrupts it, leading to the bacterial death. In this article, we reviewed the unit conversion, dose, use and routes of administration of colistin. Dose calculation of colistin is difficult due to various factors such as lack of knowledge, confusions in unit conversions. Also there exist differences in the product labeling as the doses are expressed either in terms of salt or base. Since 1mg of colistimethate sodium is equivalent to 12500 IU of colistimethate sodium and 12500 IU of colistimethate sodium has 0.416mg of colistin base activity, focusing on the unit conversions of colistin will improve the patient care, minimize the errors in dose calculations which ultimately improves the therapeutic outcome. Thus the best possible way to counter the problems arising during the dose calculation of colistin is by clearly mentioning the number of international units of colistin in the labeling information of each vial of various colistin formulations manufactured and distributed around the world.

Keywords: colistin, dose calculation, base activity.