Effect of Cholestyramine on Activity of Gentamicin in Vitro
1 Dept of Paediatrics and Child Health, Institute of Child Health, University of Cape Town, South Africa
To the Editor.
A combination of oral gentamicin and the basic anion exchange resin, cholestyramine is effective in the treatment of infants who have severe diarrhea for 7 days.1 Both drugs decrease the severity of the diarrhea and there is a considerable, beneficial interaction between them.2 The mode of action is not known, but we postulated that gentamicin acts by eliminating the abnormal bacterial microflora in the small bowel and cholestyramine by binding toxins or deconjugated and dehydroxylated bile salts.2




