How Long Does Amoxicillin Stay In Your Body?
Amoxicillin is a moderate spectrum bacteriolytic antibiotic. It is often used to treat bacterial infections, and it is usually used to treat the types of infections caused by microorganisms.
Amoxicillin has a half life that is approximately an hour. This means that within an hour of taking the Amoxicillin, the amount that you have in your body will be reduced by half of the amount that was originally taken.
About twelve hours after you have taken the medicine, the vast majority (about ninety-five percent of the medicine) will be metabolized by your body and excreted in the form of urine.
From anywhere between twenty-four and forty-eight hours after you took the medicine, traces of it will still be in your blood and urine. However, this will depend on the amount of medicine that you took. Thus, it will usually take about a day to two days for the Amoxicillin to be completely removed from your system.
About Amoxicillin
Amoxicillin works by inhibiting the synthesis of the bacterial cell wall. This means that it stops any cross linkage that would normally occur between the linear peptidoglycan polymer chains that compose the large component of the cell walls. Amoxicillin does this action with both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria:
- Gram-positive bacteria - stained dark blue by Gram staining
- Gram-negative bacteria - do not retain crystal violet dye in the Gram-staining process
Amoxicillin is available in a number of different forms. You can take it as a capsule, as a chewable pill, and as a syrup. Additionally, you can use Amoxicillin as the sodium salt for intravenous administration. In other countries outside the United States, you can also receive Amoxicillin in an intravenous formulation. It is one of the most commonly prescribed antibiotics, and it is frequently prescribed to children.
Side Effects
There are some side effects for the antibiotic. Some of the side effects may include:
- nausea
- vomiting
- rashes
- diarrhea
- antibiotic associated colitis
Colitis is an inflammation of the colon, or an inflammation of the large intestine. In about ten percent of the cases of children taking the medicine, they develop a rash known as the “Amoxicillin induced morbilliform rash.”
The rash begins on the buttocks and spreads from that area. It is described as being measles like in appearance and symptoms. Usually the rash is not an indication of an allergic reaction to the medicine. The rash can sometimes occur in adults as well, and it usually occurs about seventy-two hours after taking the medicine.
Sometimes the non-allergic form of the rash is an indication of infectious mononucleosis. The vast majority of patients treated with Amoxicillin that have this virus do in fact develop a non allergic rash. The exact percentage is between eighty to ninety percent of the individuals with the virus that take Amoxicillin. It occurs in individuals that have never taken penicillin-like medicine in their lives.
Allergic Reactions
Occasionally, an individual may have an allergic reaction to the medicine. If one has an allergic reaction, the effects can actually be quite severe. The reaction will occur quickly and intensely, and one must be given medical attention instantly.
The reaction will occur with a change in your mental state at first, and then your skin will quickly become quite itchy. You will feel like you want to vomit, and you will develop a fever.
Sometimes other symptoms might be an indication of an allergic reaction, such as odd behavior that is out of character. If these symptoms occur, you must quickly go to the hospital or doctor.