{"id":971,"date":"2025-06-27T13:16:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T12:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/services.nhslothian.scot\/bronchiectasis\/?page_id=971"},"modified":"2025-06-27T13:57:41","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T12:57:41","slug":"inhaled-antibiotics","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/services.nhslothian.scot\/bronchiectasis\/research\/completed-projects\/inhaled-antibiotics\/","title":{"rendered":"Inhaled Antibiotics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To assess the effects of long term inhaled antibiotics (Gentamicin) as an effective treatment in reducing cough, sputum volume, sputum purulence (darkness of colour), the frequency of chest infections and improving the health related quality of life. This was a one year long study.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><div class=\"wpcp-wp-lightbox-host wpcp-advanced-image-lightbox-icon-hover\"><a class=\"wpcp-wp-lightbox-image-link\" data-wpcp-wp-lb-image=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/services.nhslothian.scot\/bronchiectasis\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/153\/2025\/02\/Gent-paper-300x183-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"183\" src=\"https:\/\/services.nhslothian.scot\/bronchiectasis\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/153\/2025\/02\/Gent-paper-300x183-1.png\" alt=\"Gent paper 300x183\" class=\"wp-image-972\" style=\"width:410px;height:auto\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Percentage of patients with purulent sputum (dark yellow or dark green or dark brown)<\/figcaption><a href=\"https:\/\/services.nhslothian.scot\/bronchiectasis\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/153\/2025\/02\/Gent-paper-300x183-1.png\" data-fancybox=\"wpcp-wp-img-972\" class=\"wpcp-lightbox-trigger wpcp-advanced-image-lightbox-icon wpcp-position-top-right wpcp-advanced-image-lightbox-icon-hover wpcp-global-lightbox-icon wpcp-lightbox-icon--global wpcp-lb-icon-style-default\" data-wpcp-lb-icon-source=\"global\" aria-label=\"Open image in lightbox\" data-thumb-src=\"https:\/\/services.nhslothian.scot\/bronchiectasis\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/153\/2025\/02\/Gent-paper-300x183-1.png\" data-wpcp-lb-single=\"1\"><span class=\"wpcp-icon-container\"><svg viewBox=\"0 0 20 20\"><path d=\"M17.6585 16.025L14.2437 12.6198C15.1716 11.3338 15.6121 9.7613 15.4871 8.1819C15.362 6.60251 14.6795 5.11847 13.5607 3.99351C12.936 3.36206 12.1916 2.86066 11.3709 2.51845C10.5502 2.17623 9.66952 2 8.77995 2C7.89039 2 7.00969 2.17623 6.18899 2.51845C5.36829 2.86066 4.62395 3.36206 3.99919 3.99351C3.36594 4.61649 2.86312 5.35871 2.51992 6.17708C2.17673 6.99545 2 7.87365 2 8.76068C2 9.64772 2.17673 10.5259 2.51992 11.3443C2.86312 12.1627 3.36594 12.9049 3.99919 13.5279C5.11957 14.6901 6.62279 15.4103 8.23285 15.5562C9.84291 15.7022 11.4517 15.2641 12.7639 14.3224L16.1788 17.7275C16.3849 17.9034 16.6473 18 16.9186 18C17.1899 18 17.4523 17.9034 17.6585 17.7275C18.1138 17.16 18.1138 16.5925 17.6585 16.025ZM5.59278 12.0523C5.16258 11.6298 4.82094 11.1263 4.58774 10.5709C4.35455 10.0156 4.23446 9.41951 4.23446 8.81744C4.23446 8.21536 4.35455 7.6193 4.58774 7.06394C4.82094 6.50859 5.16258 6.00503 5.59278 5.58257C6.01644 5.15359 6.52144 4.81292 7.07838 4.58039C7.63532 4.34786 8.23308 4.22811 8.83687 4.22811C9.44066 4.22811 10.0384 4.34786 10.5954 4.58039C11.1523 4.81292 11.6573 5.15359 12.081 5.58257C12.5112 6.00503 12.8528 6.50859 13.086 7.06394C13.3192 7.6193 13.4393 8.21536 13.4393 8.81744C13.4393 9.41951 13.3192 10.0156 13.086 10.5709C12.8528 11.1263 12.5112 11.6298 12.081 12.0523C11.6573 12.4813 11.1523 12.822 10.5954 13.0545C10.0384 13.287 9.44066 13.4068 8.83687 13.4068C8.23308 13.4068 7.63532 13.287 7.07838 13.0545C6.52144 12.822 6.01644 12.4813 5.59278 12.0523Z\" \/><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Key Conclusions:&nbsp;<\/strong>The treatment reduced the numbers of bacteria in the airways and the numberof chest infections, made the sputum clearer, improved how far patients could walk and made patients feel better. The graph shows that after 6 months the colour of spit went much lighter in the group that had gentamicin,&nbsp; which is a sign that the bronchiectasis was improving. Some patients could not tolerate the antibiotic as it caused increased wheeze and breathlessness. Patients deteriorated when the treatment stopped after 1 year and so treatment needs to be continous to maintain the positive benefits. While as noted some results were promising further multi-centred international studies are required to establish whether inhaled antibiotics are safe long term therapies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Patient Implications:&nbsp;<\/strong>This is a potential long term treatment for bronchiectasis but further studies are needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Reference:<\/strong>&nbsp;American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine 2011;183(4):491-9<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To assess the effects of long term inhaled antibiotics (Gentamicin) as an effective treatment in reducing cough, sputum volume, sputum purulence (darkness of colour), the frequency of chest infections and improving the health related quality of life. This was a one year long study. Key Conclusions:&nbsp;The treatment reduced the numbers of bacteria in the airways<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":933,"menu_order":6,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"class_list":["post-971","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"NHS Lothian","author_link":"https:\/\/services.nhslothian.scot\/bronchiectasis\/blog\/author\/nhs-lothian\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":false,"rttpg_excerpt":"To assess the effects of long term inhaled antibiotics (Gentamicin) as an effective treatment in reducing cough, sputum volume, sputum purulence (darkness of colour), the frequency of chest infections and improving the health related quality of life. This was a one year long study. Key Conclusions:&nbsp;The treatment reduced the numbers of bacteria in the airways","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/services.nhslothian.scot\/bronchiectasis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/services.nhslothian.scot\/bronchiectasis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/services.nhslothian.scot\/bronchiectasis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/services.nhslothian.scot\/bronchiectasis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/services.nhslothian.scot\/bronchiectasis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=971"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/services.nhslothian.scot\/bronchiectasis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1032,"href":"https:\/\/services.nhslothian.scot\/bronchiectasis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/971\/revisions\/1032"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/services.nhslothian.scot\/bronchiectasis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/services.nhslothian.scot\/bronchiectasis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/services.nhslothian.scot\/bronchiectasis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}