Ampicillin
The drug Ampicillin is a prescription medicine, and to get it at a pharmacy you should have a drug recipe from your healthcare provider. It’s a semisynthetic antibiotic of broad-spectrum penicillin, which has a bactericidal effect by suppressing the synthesis of the bacterial cell wall.
Indication
Ampicillin has a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity. It has a bactericidal effect by suppressing the synthesis of the bacterial cell wall. It is active against aerobic gram-positive bacteria. After oral administration, it is well absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract.
The medication is most often prescribed for the treatment of the following bacterial infections: respiratory tract infections (pneumonia, lung abscess, bronchitis, sinusitis, tonsillitis, pharyngitis, otitis media), infections, kidney and urinary tract infections (cystitis, pyelonephritis, pyelitis, urethritis), infection of the biliary system (cholangitis, cholecystitis), chlamydial infection in pregnant women (in case of intolerance to erythromycin), cervicitis, pasteurellosis, listeriosis, infections of the skin and soft tissues (erysipelas, impetigo, secondarily infected dermatitis), infections of the musculoskeletal system, gastrointestinal tract infection (typhoid and paratyphoid fever, dysentery, shigellosis, salmonellosis, salmonella carrier), abdominal infection (peritonitis), bacterial endocarditis, gonorrhea, meningitis, septicemia, whooping cough.
You can take this medicine only if it is prescribed by the doctor. During the treatment with the drug Ampicillin you should follow the doctor’s recommendations carefully.
Application Method and Dosage
Ampicillin should be taken in accordance with doctor’s medical advice. It should usually be administered orally 30 minutes before or 2 hours after the meal time. The duration of the treatment with Ampicillin is set individually (5 days - 3 weeks), depending on the characteristics of the disease, the age of the patient, the effectiveness of the therapy and the state of renal function. After the disappearance of the clinical symptoms of the disease, the drug Ampicillin should be taken for another 2-3 days.
The dosage regimen is determined by the doctor. The recommended single standard dose for adults and children over the age of 14 is 250-1000 mg every 6 hours.
Patients with urinary tract infections are usually recommended to take 500 mg every 8 hours. Patients with typhoid and paratyphoid fever are advised to apply 1000–2000 mg every 6 hours. When the patients have the acute course of the disease, then the treatment duration is about 2 weeks. If the patient is a carrier of the bacillus, then the treatment course usually lasts 4–12 weeks.
In the cases of uncomplicated gonorrhea the patients get a single dose of 2000 mg of the drug Ampicillin in combination with 1000 mg of Probenecid. The course of the treatment is often recommended to be repeated within women.
The dosage for the patients, suffering from respiratory tract and upper respiratory tract infections, is 250 mg every 6 hours. People with pneumonia get 500 mg every 6 hours.
For children over the age of 6 years, the drug should be prescribed in a daily dose of 100 mg / kg of body weight and the daily dose should be divided into 4-6 doses.
Patients with severe renal impairment need to adjust the dosage regimen: the dose of the drug should be reduced or the interval between doses should be increased.
Side Reactions
The possible side-effects are not numerous but may include the following: headache, tremors, convulsions (if high-dose of the drug was taken), leukopenia, neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, and anemia. Do not take two pills of Ampicillin instead of one and keep strict intervals between tablets intake in order to avoid overdose. If after taking the medicine you began experiencing any negative bothering symptoms, then you should immediately contact your doctor and seek medical help.
Ampicillin Contraindications
Most of medicines have some contraindications and may be forbidden in some cases. The drug Ampicillin is not an exception. You are not allowed to take this medication if you experience the following: hypersensitivity (including other penicillin drugs), infectious mononucleosis, lymphatic leukemia, liver failure, gastrointestinal diseases in the anamnesis (especially colitis associated with antibiotic use).
The drug is forbidden to children younger than 1 month old. Also, it should not be used in cases of bronchial asthma, hay fever, kidney failure, and cases of bleeding in the past. Ampicillin can be used for the treatment of pregnant women if the effect of therapy outweighs the potential risk to the fetus.
If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, then you should warn your doctor about this fact before he or she prescribes you any medications. Also you should inform your doctor about any other drugs, food supplements or vitamins that you usually take, as Ampicillin may have poor interactions with several medications and substances.