Prevention of prosthetic valve endocarditis by impregnation of gentamicin into surgical pledgets

A novel drug delivery system was developed for the treatment of prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE). The antibiotic, gentamicin, was impregnated into surgical pledgets using non-solvent coacervation of polylactic acid (PLA) as a binding/encapsulating agent. The in vitro dissolution profiles show controlled release of gentamicin for up to 36 h when PLA of molecular weight 2000 is used and up to 7 d for PLA with a molecular weight of 50000. The results indicate potential for the localized treatment of PVE, which is cost-effective, easy to manufacture and permits dosage variability.