Oxidative stress is a potential mechanism of vancomycin-induced renal toxicity. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO) has been shown to be effective in treating pharmacologically - induced renal toxicity in animal models.
Objective: To investigate the effect of HBO therapy on vancomycin-induced nephrotoxicity in rats.
Methods: We treated 30 Sprague Dawley male rats with 500mg/kg of intraperitoneal vancomycin once a day for 7 days. Half of the rats received a daily 1-hour treatment with HBO on the same 7 days and formed the HBO+ group. The other 15 subjects received no HBO treatment (HBO- group). The other six rats served as the control group, three received HBO treatments alone and no treatment was administered to the other three rats. Laboratory results were obtained on day 8 and the intervention and control groups were compared.
Results: Rats in the HBO+ group gained less weight than the HBO- group (11.6 grams vs 22.6 grams; P=0,008) and had significantly higher serum urea (99.6 vs 52.6 mg/dL; P<0.001), creatinine (0.42 vs 0.16 mg/dL; P=0.001) and magnesium (3.6 vs 3.1mg/dL; P=0.014). The vancomycin blood levels were also higher in the HBO+ group (27.8 vs 6.7 µg/mL; P=0.078). All the kidneys from the HBO+ group showed moderate to severe acute tubular necrosis, whereas 12 of the 14 kidneys from the HBO- group only showed mild histopathological changes (P<0.001).
