When antibiotics turn toxic

Commonly prescribed drugs called fluoroquinolones cause rare, disabling side effects. Researchers are struggling to work out why.

 Yet Another Warning On Fluoroquinolone Antibiotic Side Effects

Still, fluoroquinolones are essential drugs, especially in complicated infections with gram-negative bacteria. But their liabilities illustrate yet another reason why we still need to develop new antibiotics.

Fluoroquinolone antibiotics – what we shouldn’t forget two years after the restriction by the European Commission

The use of fluoroquinolone and quinolone antibiotics was legally restricted by the European Commission (EC) on 11 March 2019. Before this, fluoroquinolones were among the most popular antimicrobial drugs prescribed across all medical disciplines.

Future of Fluoroquinolones: Risks, Benefits of Antibiotic Workhorse

In the past decade, fluoroquinolones (FQs) have significantly fallen out of favor as empiric usage for many gram-negative (GN) infections. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued statements regarding preferential use of alternative therapy for many common disease states because the risks of adverse effects (AEs) of FQs outweigh the potential benefits.

Adverse Effects of Fluoroquinolones: Where Do We Stand?

Potential adverse effects — including aortic rupture and dissection — should be considered routinely in the assessment of benefits and harms associated with fluoroquinolones. For example, the benefit-harm calculus for an elderly mildly hypertensive patient with severe community-acquired pneumonia surely differs from that of a patient with a known aortic aneurysm or a collagen disorder and marginal indications for fluoroquinolone therapy.

Fluoroquinolone Antibiotic Risks

In May 2016, The FDA released a drug safety letter advising health care professionals that for patients with other treatment options, the risks associated with using fluoroquinolone antibiotics generally outweigh the benefits for patients with acute sinusitis, acute bronchitis, and uncomplicated urinary tract infections. For patients with these conditions, fluoroquinolones should be reserved only for those without alternative treatment options.

Fluoroquinolone antibiotics: An overview

Fluoroquinolones show their action by inhibiting the replication and transcription of bacterial DNA that is responsible for proper functioning of the cell.

Fluoroquinolones - Assessing the potential risk of persistent and disabling side effects

There was little information in the scientific and medical literature on persistent and disabling nature of side effects reported with fluoroquinolone use, but the information available supports a link between the use of fluoroquinolones and persistent disability, especially for side effects such as tendinopathy and peripheral neuropathy.

Fluoroquinolones and Tendinopathy: A Guide for Athletes and Sports Clinicians and a Systematic Review of the Literature

Fluoroquinolone antibiotics have been used for several decades and are effective antimicrobials. Despite their usefulness as antibiotics, a growing body of evidence has accumulated in the peer-reviewed literature that shows fluoroquinolones can cause pathologic lesions in tendon tissue (tendinopathy).

Fluoroquinolones Are Too Risky for Common Infections

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is advising against prescribing fluoroquinolones, a group of antibiotics that includes drugs such as Cipro and Levaquin, to treat three common illnesses —bronchitis, sinus infections, and urinary tract infections. The agency issued the new recommendations after a safety review revealed that fluoroquinolones can cause disabling and potentially permanent side effects that affect the tendons, muscles, joints, nerves, and central nervous system.

Fluoroquinolones With great power comes great risk

Although a majority of the general population tolerates FQs with minimal to no adverse reactions, increasing reports of serious adverse reactions make FQs a less attractive treatment option.7 Risks and benefits must be weighed for each patient situation

Fluoroquinolones-Associated Disability: It Is Not All in Your Head

Since the late 1980s, twelve FQs have been discontinued due to adverse side effects. Some of the more notable side effects discussed in this review include photosensitivity, QT prolongation, hepatotoxicity, tendinopathies and central and peripheral nervous systems effect...

Six reasons to avoid fluoroquinolones in the critically ill

As an internal medicine resident and pulmonary/critical care fellow, I loved fluoroquinolones. They were effective, easy to prescribe, and had 100% oral bioavailability (disclosure: I was gifted a pair of Avelox trauma shears during that time)(1). However, working full-time in the ICU has forced me to realize that these drugs aren't so wonderful for the critically ill.

Study links FDA warnings to fewer fluoroquinolone prescriptions

A new study suggests that the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) warnings about adverse events linked to fluoroquinolone antibiotics may have helped lower prescribing of the drugs, but not all physicians have been responsive to those warnings.