Kaneda M, Tsuda J, Iida N, Igarashi T, Tajima H, Kizu J, Hori S.

Department of Pharmacy, Sanraku Hospital, 2-5 Kanda-Surugadai, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-8326.

Since convulsions associated with the concurrent administration of enoxacin and fenbufen were reported in 1986, the concurrent administration of quinolones and anti-inflammatory drugs has been regulated to be contraindicated or carefully administered. However, the real incidence of the co-administration is not clear. We surveyed the incidence of co-administration of these drugs from the prescriptions in a community hospital. Quinolones were prescribed in 1% of the out-patients, and anti-inflammatory drugs were co-administrated in 16% of quinolone-prescribed patients. Among quinolones prescribed, levofloxacin was used most frequently. And acetaminphen (including acetaminophen-combination) was most frequently prescribed with quinolones, and anti-inflammatory drugs, which is regulated to be carefully administrated with quinolones, were frequently co-prescribed. In medical practice, quinolones were revealed to be co-administered with anti-inflammatory drugs. Since our recent report suggests that each quinolone and each anti-inflammatory drug has different activity in their drug interaction, it should be necessary to recognize the interaction of these drugs separately for their effective and safe use in clinical field.

PMID: 14567251 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Last Updated 7/26/04