Occasionally we get questions about the risks associated with certain types of antibiotics and the development of tendonitis or tendon rupture.\u00a0 The concerns for this relate to antibiotics from one particular class of drugs known as fluoroquinolones (\u201cFloor-oh-quin-oh-loans\u201d), including commonly used antibiotics such as Levaquin and Cipro.\u00a0 These medications are used to treat a variety of conditions, from urinary tract infections to respiratory infections such as bronchitis, pneumonia or sinusitis.\u00a0 Initial reports of associations of tendon problems with these drugs occurred as far back as the mid-1990\u2019s, but the association became more widely known after the legal community started pursuing legal claims against drug manufacturers on behalf of affected patients.<\/p>\n
The review by Khalip, though about eight years old now, summarizes nicely the known associations.\u00a0 This was a retrospective study, meaning that patients with tendon problems who were known to have been on prior fluoroquinolones were identified and their data analyzed (in retrospect).\u00a0 Using this approach, a total of 98 published cases were identified in the U.S. literature.\u00a0 The results of this analysis was then compared with prior similar patient series from other countries.\u00a0 Khalip\u2019s review of 98 cases found that 37% of antibiotic-associated tendon injury occurred with pefloxacin after a median duration of nine days of treatment.\u00a0 Ciprofloxacin was the second most commonly associated drug, involving 26% of all cases, with a median dosing period of seven days.\u00a0 Oflaxacin was also identified as showing strong trends for increased risk in the parallel studies from Europe.<\/p>\n
The Achilles tendon was by far the most common site of injury, occurring in 90% of all cases in Khalip\u2019s study, and 98% of all cases in a larger case series from France.\u00a0 It involves both tendons between 45-50% of the time.\u00a0 The average time between treatment with the antibiotic and the development of symptoms was 18 days, with 50% occurring within six days, but scattered cases occurring as late as six months.\u00a0 41% of patients with tendonitis went on to develop tendon rupture.\u00a0 Recovery averaged about two months (59.2 days), with some cases taking almost two years.\u00a0 Data from France indicated that onset was similar, with an average of nine days from treatment onset.\u00a0 Recovery occurred a bit more quickly, usually between 15-30 days.\u00a0 The average age of people affected was 59, with a range of 28-92.\u00a0 The ratio of men to women was 1.9:1.\u00a0 Additional additive risk factors seem to be use of oral steroids at the same time that fluoroquinolones are used, as well as the presence of co-existing kidney disease.\u00a0 The rate of tendon rupture in an otherwise healthy patient population is low \u2013 reported to be between 0.14% and 0.4%.\u00a0 Patients with chronic kidney disease, or who are taking oral steroids for unrelated problems should be aware of the association and consider other antibiotic options when appropriate.<\/p>\n
In summary, the association between fluoroquinolones and tendon problems is real, but more limited in scope than is suggested by the trumpeting of the problem on the radio by lawyers looking for prospective clients.\u00a0 Patients who develop this problem should be temporarily protected and should respond well, with recovery of normal function over a short-to-medium range timeframe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KhalipY, Zhannel G.\u00a0 Fluorquinolone-Associated Tendinopathy:\u00a0 A Critical Review of the Literature.\u00a0 Clinical Infectious Diseases 2003;36:1404-10. Occasionally we get questions about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":844,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[136,63,82,81,83],"class_list":["post-843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport-med-research","tag-research","tag-supplements","tag-tendinitis","tag-tendon","tag-tendonosis"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stadiasportsmedicine.com\/info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stadiasportsmedicine.com\/info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stadiasportsmedicine.com\/info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stadiasportsmedicine.com\/info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stadiasportsmedicine.com\/info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=843"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stadiasportsmedicine.com\/info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":845,"href":"https:\/\/stadiasportsmedicine.com\/info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843\/revisions\/845"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stadiasportsmedicine.com\/info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stadiasportsmedicine.com\/info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stadiasportsmedicine.com\/info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stadiasportsmedicine.com\/info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}