Recent news regarding this commonly prescribed antibiotic prompted me to provide a few thoughts to NRGTRIBE readers. I’m sure many of you have taken this drug and had decent results with fairly limited side-effects.
However, recent research suggests that the macrolide class of drugs, which includes Zithromax, appears to contribute to higher incidences of fatal cardiac arrhythmia’s. (Which means higher incidence of irregular electrical heart function leading to death).
The drug has a long track record with relative safety but I think the latest findings are important.
However, as a prescribing physician I will make the following changes to my usage of this medication.
I certainly will continue to use Zithromax in patients that I believe suffer from a bacterial infection. However, I will curb my usage in individuals who have one of the following situations:
- Congestive Heart Failure (CHF)
- Known or chronic electrical anomalies of the heart (Atrial Fibrillation, Tachycardia’s, Long Q-T interval, etc.)
- Individuals on medications which escalate the risk for or treat cardiac arrhythmia’s
- Coronary artery disease (CAD)
By eliminating the above patients from common prescribing of Zithromax I believe that should increase the safety when using this valuable class of medications.
Feel free to respond if I can provide any further insight…