Background: At this time, several antibiotics have been investigated as possibilities for aerosol administration, but local therapy has been found to be more efficient in several diseases.
Materials and methods: The drugs linezolid (Zyvox), vancomycin (Voncon), and daptomycin (Cubicin) were tested with three jet nebulizers with seven different residual cups and different loadings. Moreover, three ultrasound nebulizers were again tested with these drugs, with different loadings and mouthpiece attachments.
Results: When drugs are combined with particular cup designs, they significantly lower the droplet size to 1.60 and 1.80 μm, which represents the best combination of Zyvox and cup G and Cubicin and cup D, respectively. Cup design D is suggested as the most effective cup for lowering the droplet size (2.30 μm) when considering a higher loading level (8 mL).
Conclusion: Modification of current drugs from dry powder to solution is possible, and the residual cup design plays the most important role in droplet size production when the nebulization systems have the same properties.
Keywords: aerosol; daptomycin; jet nebulizers; linezolid; ultrasound nebulizers; vancomycin.