Background: Midazolam is frequently used for management of status epilepticus or cluster seizures at home. There are currently no studies looking at the stability of midazolam in the home environment.
Objective: The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate the degradation of midazolam over the course of 360 days in a simulated home environment using three different storage methods (light-protected glass vial [group A], light-protected syringe [group B] and non light-protected syringe [group C]).
Methods: The concentration of midazolam was determined using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in triplicate, at each of the time points (0, 14, 30, 60, 120, 180, 270, and 360 days). A two-way ANOVA using Tukey's procedure was used to compare each storage environment at each time point.
Results: By 360 days, the midazolam concentration revealed an increase from the starting concentration. The mean concentration for group A, B and C was 79.9%, 102.0% and 107.0%, respectively, of the labeled concentration at day 360. The increase in concentration was not statistically significant between groups B and C, but was statistically significant between groups A and B and groups A and C.
Conclusions: This study demonstrated that dispensing ready-made syringes would be appropriate in order to facilitate ease of use and to expedite rescue therapy for epileptic dogs at home.
