Antimicrobial Efficacy

“In vitro, the antimicrobial agent taurolidine inhibited virtually all of the bacteria tested, including vancomycin-resistant enterococci, oxacillin-resistant staphylococci, and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, at concentrations between 250 and 2,000 mg/ml. Taurolidine was not effective in experimental endocarditis. While it appears unlikely that this antimicrobial would be useful for systemic therapy, its bactericidal activity and the resistance rates found (<10^-9) are favorable indicators for its possible development for topical use.”

“…The antiseptics ethanol and Taurolock were shown to be most effective at inactivating biofilm; this was evident against all stages of biofilm investigated...“

“…TCH reduced the need for thrombolysis compared to TC (hazard ratio, 0.2; 95%CI: 0.06, 0.5; p < 0.001) and was not significantly different from heparin 5000 U⁄ ml (hazard ratio, 1.4; 95%CI: 0.5, 3.9; p = 0.5)…”

“…Thus, use of taurolidine-based catheter lock solutions containing heparin and urokinase significantly reduced complications related to tunneled hemodialysis catheters when compared to four percent citrate solution and was overall more cost-efficient…”

“…In this study, repeated episodes of acute catheter thrombosis that required catheter removal were encountered only in the Taurolock/Hep group, with no removed catheters for the same reason from the Taurolock/U group. Furthermore, a greater anticoagulant benefit of Taurolock/U was evidenced by a significantly lower number of rt-PA interventions to restore catheter patency in this group….On estimation of the possible impact of the catheter lock solution on dialysis adequacy, Kt/V values were found to be uniformly higher in the Taurolock/U group than in the Taurolock/ Hep group, a finding that further confirms better catheter performance in Taurolock/U group.…It was found that mean BFR was significantly higher in the Taurolock/U group than in the Taurolock/Hep group at many of the measured time points, a finding that adds further evidence of better tunneled catheter performance with Taurolock/U lock solution, most probably due to its higher anti-thrombotic benefit…”