Erythromycin News

Contact an Erythromycin Lawyer

or

September 9th, 2004

"Common Antibiotic Erythromycin Increases Risk of Cardiac Arrest Dramatically"

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. Erythromycin, when taken along with other drugs that increase its concentration in the blood, was found to have a risk of cardiac death more than five times greater.

Some heart doctors have known about the slight risk erythromycin carried due to individual reports on patient deaths most often occurring among patients taking the drug intravenously. When erythromycin is taken along with certain medicines for infections and calcium channel blockers for high blood pressure, the danger is believed to occur because the other drugs slow the breakdown of erythromycin. The increased concentration presents an "unacceptably high risk," according to study researcher Wayne Ray.

Cardiac arrest, or sudden cardiac death, takes the lives of an estimated 340,000 Americans every year. Caused by abnormal heart rhythm, erythromycin creates negative interaction with medicines that other antibiotics providing the same antimicrobial activity does not.

Patients should always notify their doctors of any other medications they are currently taking before beginning a new prescription to avoid the risk of adverse drug interactions. Doctors should choose alternatives to erythromycin for patients using a drug that may increase risk of a heart attack.