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Erythromycin is a common antibiotic drug used to treat a wide range of infections. Most patients take erythromycin for one to two weeks, depending on the type of infection present. The popular drug has been used for years and has been considered to have relatively few risks of side effects. The first study to systematically document erythromycin side effects risk has been published in the September 9, 2004 New England Journal of Medicine and it challenges earlier beliefs that the antibiotic is safe, as well as questioning the need for continued research on older drugs.
A team of doctors and nurses spent years studying detailed Medicaid patient medical records from Tennessee. Included in the medical records were 4,404 patients that died of cardiac arrest from 1988 to 1993. After confirming 1,476 cases of cardiac arrest, the team then studied the records of each patient''s medication use. The study focused on erythromycin use along with certain medicines for infections and calcium channel blockers for high blood pressure, and the results were shocking.
The erythromycin side effects risks were significant and a far larger problem than anyone realized. When erythromycin was taken alone, researchers found the rate of sudden cardiac death was twice as high. Even more concerning, the patients using a group of drugs known as CYP3A inhibitors alongside erythromycin had a risk more than five times greater of cardiac death. Due to the CYP3A drugs appearing to slow down the breakdown of erythromycin, the concentration of the antibiotic was much higher, thus increasing risk of suffering cardiac erythromycin side effects.
The researchers compared the high risk of erythromycin side effects to another popular antibiotic Amoxicillin and found that while taking Amoxicillin with a CYP3A inhibitor there was no increased risk of side effects. While the study results must be fully considered, researchers think that alone and especially when taken in combination with CYP3A inhibitors, erythromycin increase chances of suffering a sudden cardiac death so significantly that its use must be heavily weighed. Since there are alternative antibiotics without the erythromycin side effects, doctors should be especially cautious giving the drug to patients with other therapies that could cause erythromycin to build up in the blood.
Every year, about 340,000 Americans die from sudden cardiac death. When an abnormal heart rhythm occurs, the heart can begin to beat too rapidly to efficiently pump blood. With erythromycin, the increased concentration caused by CYP3A inhibitors traps salt inside resting heart muscle cells that prolong the next heartbeat and can trigger chaotic rhythm that can be fatal. Erythromycin side effects risks for cardiac death can account for six deaths in every 10,000 people taking erythromycin for its typical two-week duration while on the other drugs.
According to a study researcher, the erythromycin side effects present an "unacceptably high risk" that nobody really realized existed. Many heart doctors were aware that slight erythromycin side effects risks were present because of some individual reports on patient deaths however, the majority of general practitioners were less likely to ever hear about these reports.
Included in the group of drugs known as CYP3A inhibitors are:
For years, erythromycin has been used as a broad based antibiotic to treat bacterial infections and used in HIV positive individuals. The common use of the drug has been under the assumption that the drug was considered to be safe and effective. A new ...
Erythromycin is a common antibiotic drug that is used to treat a wide range of symptoms. A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine has shown the drug generally thought of as safe actually dramatically increases the risk of cardiac arrest. Eryt...
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