Chronic allergic otitis externa requires both short- and long-term treatment plans. In short-term plans, any active infections and inflammation need to be resolved; dozens of commercial products are available for this purpose. In long-term plans, inflammation and infection must be prevented to avoid flares of disease; however, few commercial products are available in this capacity. Because of this, many clinicians make their own solutions by adding a steroid to a commercial ear-flush product; however, few data exist regarding the long-term stability of such solutions.
This study investigated the stability of dexamethasone (2 mg/mL) added to 4 different commercial ear flushes (ie, Tris-EDTA + ketoconazole, Tris-EDTA + ketoconazole + chlorhexidine gluconate, salicylic acid, and phytosphingosine) at different concentrations (0.1 mg/mL and 0.25 mg/mL). Solutions were stored in their original bottles and tested at room temperature (71.6°F [22°C]) and when refrigerated (39.2°F [4°C]).
Stability was measured using mass spectrometry at 10 time points over 90 days. The solution was considered stable if the dexamethasone concentration remained >90% of the starting concentration. All solutions were stable at 90 days, except Tris-EDTA + ketoconazole with 0.25 mg/mL dexamethasone, which was only stable up to 14 days at the refrigerated temperature and up to 21 days at room temperature.
