Pain on injection and muscle irritation: a comparison of animal models for assessing parenteral antibiotics.

Pain on injection due to parenteral administration of cephaloridine, cephalothin, and cefoxitin with or without 1% lidocaine was examined in a rat paw-lick model and the results compared with those obtained in a rabbit intramuscular model of irritation. In both animal models, cephaloridine caused similar or a slightly greater response than sterile water. Conversely, cefoxitin and cephalothin caused a much greater reaction than water in both models. The only major difference in the rankings by the two models was with formulations in which an anesthetic agent was incorporated into the diluent. As expected, the presence of a local anesthetic masked pain on injection but not muscle damage. The rat paw-lick model is an alternative to the traditional rabbit muscle irritation model for rapidly assessing both pain on injection and muscle irritation of parenteral formulations.