Aspirin can prevent deafness in antibiotic use
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People treated with the antibiotic gentamicin can reduce the risk of permanent hearing loss, a possible side effect, by also taking aspirin, a study showed on Wednesday.
The finding could be especially important in poorer countries where gentamicin and similar drugs, known as aminoglycosides, are used widely because they are inexpensive and often available over the counter, the researchers said.
Millions of people take the drug worldwide each year and perhaps one in 10 permanently loses at least some hearing because of it, the co-author of the study, Jochen Schacht of the University of Michigan, told Reuters.
If aspirin co-therapy is widely adopted, “a lot of hearing loss and probably a lot of suffering from its consequences will be prevented,” he said.
“In a developing country if you lose your hearing, nobody cares about you. It means no more work, no more communications.”
The study published in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine was a joint effort by the University of Michigan and the Fourth Military Medical University in Xi’an, China.
Gentamicin is not used widely in the United States because of the risk to hearing.
Schacht said he and colleague Su-Hua Sha turned to China when they were told no drug company would sponsor a test of the aspirin treatment because there was no way to make a profit if it worked.
The Chinese doctors were enthusiastic because “they were seeing the problem,” especially in children, said Schacht.
In the test, only 3 percent of the 89 patients who received gentamicin with 3 grams of aspirin a day developed hearing problems five weeks after treatment, compared with 13 percent of the 106 who got a placebo in addition to the antibiotic.
Aspirin did not reduce the effectiveness of the antibiotic, but it did cause stomach problems in some patients. Three people had to stop taking it because of stomach bleeding. But the benefits outweighed the risks, said the Sha team.
Aspirin’s ability to soak up oxidants may explain why it works, and other antioxidant drugs may work as well. But “aspirin may appeal to practitioners in developing countries because of its simplicity and low cost,” the researchers said.
Aminoglycosides have been on the market for about 60 years. The World Health Organization recommends them for cases of drug-resistant tuberculosis. In addition, an inhaled form of gentamicin is often given to patients with cystic fibrosis.
It hinders hearing by destroying the tiny hairs in the inner ear that detect sounds at different frequencies.
The idea of giving aspirin came partly from tests on animals. “It seemed much too easy when we first thought of it,” Schacht said.
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