Spiramycin: safety in man.

Spiramycin, a 16-membered lactone ring macrolide, has been in clinical use for the past 15 years with little serious associated toxicity. Gastrointestinal disturbance has usually been mild and no changes in gastrointestinal motility have been noted either experimentally or in humans, in contrast to other macrolides, such as erythromycin. Allergic reactions have been uncommon and mainly restricted to transient skin eruptions. Although liver injury is a possible complication of most macrolide treatments, no conclusive evidence for spiramycin-induced hepatitis is currently available, and, again in contrast to most other macrolides, the lack of drug interactions with spiramycin has been clearly established in biochemical, pharmacokinetic and clinical studies.