Current clinical treatment for preventing the post-operative endophthalmitis include a bolus injection of the antibiotic, vancoymin (VAN),... Show moreCurrent clinical treatment for preventing the post-operative endophthalmitis include a bolus injection of the antibiotic, vancoymin (VAN), during surgery followed by a 1-2-week period of patient administered, topically applied antibiotics. Due to poor patient compliance, drug loss due to poor drug residence time for topically applied drops, and limitations of drug injection sites, there is a clinical need for a subconjunctival, sustained release drug delivery system. While a controlled drug delivery system is beneficial by eliminating patient drug administration and improving drug delivery, the challenges of initial burst (IB), drug release kinetics, and drug distribution must be addressed in order to design an optimal system to address this need. The primary goal of this study was to develop a drug delivery system (DDS) capable of delivering VAN for 10-14 days and replacing both the bolus VAN injection and the topical eye drops. We hypothesized that controlled and extended release of VAN will perform equally or better than bolus VAN administration and eye drops. To accomplish this goal, three specific aims were performed: 1) Development of an injectable drug delivery system to release bioactive VAN for at least 10 days; 2) Validation of the efficacy of the developed DDS; and 3) Development of a compartmental model analysis model used to predict the loading dose required to achieve therapeutic drug concentration in the vitreous. Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering, May 2017 Show less
