Kanamycin (Kantrex)

Kanamycin belongs to the family of medicines called antibiotics. It is used before surgery affecting the bowel to help prevent infection during surgery.

Therapeutic actions:
Aminoglycosides like kanamycin "irreversibly" bind to specific 30S-subunit proteins and 16S rRNA. Specifically Kanamycin binds to four nucleotides of 16S rRNA and a single amino acid of protein S12. This interferes with decoding site in the vicinity of nucleotide 1400 in 16S rRNA of 30S subunit. This region interacts with the wobble base in the anticodon of tRNA. This leads to interference with the initiation complex, misreading of mRNA so incorrect amino acids are inserted into the polypeptide leading to nonfunctional or toxic peptides and the breakup of polysomes into nonfunctional monosomes.

What is it used for?:
For treatment of infections where one or more of the following are the known or suspected pathogens: E. coli, Proteus species (both indole-positive and indole-negative), E. aerogenes, K. pneumoniae, S. marcescens, and Acinetobacter species.

Contraindications and cautions:
Allergy to kanamycin or any other type of aminoglycoside, including: amikacin (Amikin), gentamicin (Garamycin), neomycin (Mycifradin, Neo-Fradin, Neo-Tab), netilmicin (Netromycin), paromomycin (Humatin, Paromycin), streptomycin; tobramycin (Nebcin, Tobi).

Side effects:
• pain or irritation where the injection was given;
• mild skin rash;
• headache;
• fever; or
• nausea, vomiting.

Interactions:
Kanamycin can be harmful to the kidneys, and these effects are increased when it is used together with other medicines that can harm the kidneys.
Before using kanamycin, tell your doctor if you are also using:
• any other type of antibiotic;
• lithium (Lithobid);
• a diuretic (water pill);
• methotrexate (Rheumatrex, Trexall);
• pain or arthritis medicines such as aspirin (Anacin, Excedrin), acetaminophen (Tylenol), etodolac (Lodine), ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), indomethacin (Indocin), naproxen (Aleve, Naprosyn), and others;
• medicines used to treat ulcerative colitis, such as mesalamine (Pentasa) or sulfasalazine (Azulfidine);
• medicines used to prevent organ transplant rejection, such as sirolimus (Rapamune) or tacrolimus (Prograf);
• antiviral medicines such as adefovir (Hepsera), cidofovir (Vistide), or foscarnet (Foscavir); or
• cancer medicine such as aldesleukin (Proleukin), carmustine (BiCNU, Gliadel), cisplatin (Platinol), ifosfamide (Ifex), oxaliplatin (Eloxatin), plicamycin (Mithracin), streptozocin (Zanosar), or tretinoin (Vesanoid).