Levofloxacin 500 mg and 750 mg tablets potential side effects, dosage and warnings.
Hi this is josh i’m a pharmacist with pharmacist tips calm gonna go over the medication levofloxacin with you today the topics that we’re going to cover in this video include what is levofloxacin the common uses the regular dosage of this medication potential side effects some of the warnings as well as the interactions that one watches for when they’re using this
Medication as with all my videos this is informational purposes only not intended to serve as a substitute for your healthcare provider so what is levofloxacin it is an antibiotic it’s in a class of antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones or sometimes just called quinolone antibiotics in the u.s. it’s sold under the brand name levaquin there is a us or an fda safety
Alert about a or dec rupture risk with this class of medications we will get into that a little more as video progresses so common uses include well anthrax and plague is so those are not very common but it is used for those when there were the anthrax scares you may have heard of these medications another one in the family called cipro was in the news a lot but
This can be used for that those are not very common conditions what we probably see it used for most is like pneumonia copd exacerbations prostatitis and certain skin infections and it can be used for many many other potential infections kind of up to your healthcare provider depends on if we’ve tried anything yet the potential bacteria causing the infection all
Those things go into determining whether this is the appropriate medication for your infection ah common dosage as far as outpatient pharmacy you’re talking 500 750 milligrams tablet typically there’s also a 250 milligrams tablet and then depending on the infection like for a uti or a urinary tract infection maybe a three day course something more severe 14 like
Prostatitis it could be taken for her up to six weeks you know other infections it just depends on the infection and the risk involved as to how many days the tablets can be taken with or without food one avoid antacids two hours before or after antacids being things like tums and so food is fine but large amounts of dairy is discouraged because of the calcium
And the dairy it just reduces the absorption of levofloxacin the same issue with the antacids so most common side effects are gonna be headache rash itchiness nausea diarrhea muscle and body aches and sensitivity to light can occur usually you know not too bad most people are able to tolerate the medicine pretty well some of the rare and serious things severe rash
That we see that listed with many medications but if you have a really bad reaction you can have a full-body rash that can be fairly severe problems with blood issues labs can help identify some of these the longer we’re on this the more we’re gonna have to worry about that and can sometimes affect heart and cardiac issues heart rhythm issues so if you already have
Things like that that you probably monitored rare liver issues can occur and glucose it can affect blood sugar regulation again on the rare side but it can occur so some of the warnings we need to watch for seizure risk very very low but it is there especially if you’re already at risk of seizure problems that is something that will be monitored ten tendinitis and
That’s spelled wrong tendinitis and tendon rupture can occur with this that goes back to the aortic rupture this medicine this antibiotic can affect tendons and blood vessels it seems like it has something to do with the structure and it can put it at risk of failure or you know breaking or ripping extremely low risk but the risk is there so that’s why we kind
Of this is a stronger antibiotic and it should be reserved for more serious infections anyway and because of this risk that does put it lower down on the list list of preferred medications again it’s highly variable on the infection that you have is as well as if anything’s been tried yet i can it can cause peripheral neuropathy especially in diabetics that’s
Something that can occur can sometimes cause psychiatric reactions you know hallucinations other sort of psychotic episodes can occur again this is on the rare side but these have been shown to occur a orta kantianism so we’re back to that we have to worry about tendon and blood vessel ruptures very rare but when it does happen that can be very very serious they
Can exacerbate a condition known as myasthenia gravis it can cause liver toxicity and caution with rheumatoid arthritis this will go back to the tendon issues it can sometimes worse than the arthritis interactions we want to watch for diabetic medications and we were just talking about the potential to affect glucose metabolism those antacids we talked about that
Can reduce absorption of the medication again heart rhythm issues so cardiac folks your heart rhythm and things like that may be monitored closely steroids corticosteroids like prednisone can increase the risk of tendon rupture these are used together one just has to be aware that that can increase the risk of those rare but serious side-effects and said things
Like ibuprofen naproxen that there’s a potential to increase this seizure risk again you will see these views together just have to be aware there is a potential if you’re a higher risk of seizure that may not be a good idea the medication warfarin with the levofloxacin can increase bleeding risk warfarin has a tendency to interact with many antibiotics and that
Can increase the bleeding risk so that would be monitored as well appreciate you watching this video i kind of hope you appreciate the overview of this medication levofloxacin any questions go ahead and ask them below in the comments if you like this video go ahead and give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel if you like videos like these thanks again for watching
Transcribed from video
Levofloxacin Review 500 mg 750 mg Dosage and Side Effects By Pharmacist Tips