Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Review Article | OPEN ACCESS

Topical antibacterials and global challenges on resistance development

Sathish Amirthalingam¹ , Kok Shin Yi², Lim Tze Ching², Ng Yoke Mun²

¹Department of Pharmacy Practice; ²Department of Pharmacy, International Medical University, No. 126 Jalan Jalil Perkasa, 19, Bukit Jalil, 57000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

For correspondence:- Sathish Amirthalingam Email: asathish1981@gmail.com Tel:+601116185873

Received: 10 October 2014 Accepted: 10 April 2015 Published: 26 May 2015

Citation: Amirthalingam S, Yi KS, Ching LT, Mun NY. Topical antibacterials and global challenges on resistance development. Trop J Pharm Res 2015; 14(5):919-924 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v14i5.24

© 2015 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose:The skin acts as the first line of defence against the invasion of microorganisms. Damage to the skin such as abrasion, bruises and trauma will expose underlying tissue to bacterial infection. Minor skin infections can be easily treated with topical antibacterial medication that is available over the counter or by prescription. On the other hand, serious bacterial skin infections can be life-threatening and may require complex interventions such as medical or surgical methods to cure the disease. The treatments given have to be assessed according to the presentation, aetiology, chronicity of the wound (depth and size) and/or skin lesions. For skin bacterial infection, topical route of administration is preferred over systemic administration due to the delivery of a higher concentration of medication for the former into the desired area. It is also less likely to cause systemic side effects, toxicity, and bacterial resistance. There is ongoing controversy and debate regarding the likelihood of developing bacterial resistance with the usage of topical antibiotics as an antibacterial. This could be due to inappropriate antibiotic use resulting from self-medication, over the counter availability, prescribing on demand and a lack of regulatory control.

Keywords: Topical antibacterial, Bacterial resistance, Self-medication, Inappropriate antibiotic use, Dispensing