A Retrospective Study of Injection Site Pain from Azithromycin Injection in Japanese Patient

Azithromycin (AZM) injection tends to increase injection site pain when administered in excess of 2 mg / ml. As AZM is frequently used in combination therapies, it is expected to be administered at a high concentration in clinical use due to uid restrictions. Therefore, in this study, the relation between AZM concentration and injection site pain was examined. From January 2012 to July 2017, we retrospectively investigated the medical records of patients who were administered AZM by injection at Showa University Fujigaoka Hospital. Vascular pain was related to intensive care unit (ICU) administration (P=0.003) compared with that in general wards and a long duration of administration (P=0.002). The number of days of AZM injection should be kept as short as possible. Given that the risk of injection site pain is increased in the ICU, we recommend switching to oral administration. Further collection of safety data in patients on uid restriction is necessary, and high concentration AZM administration should be considered.