ABSTRACT

Introduction and Aim;

Quinolones, which are grouped among the new generation antibiotics, are widely argued about their usage in critical age groups. In this study adverse events (AE) were aimed to evaluate in elderly patients who had present quinolone therapy in emergency services or used these antibiotics before.

Methods;

Medical records of 254 patients who were admitted to Marmara University Emergency Unit between the dates of June 2003-May 2004, aged 65 or over and had quinolone group antibiotics were studied retrospectively and the details of utilization were looked over. Also, the adult and elderly patients who had qinolone therapy for at least 3 months in the same unit were re-examined after 2 months of therapy whether they faced any AEs or not by telephone. Eight elderly and 18 adults participated for the re-examination.

Results;

The first part of the study evaluated that ciprofloxacin was used rather frequently in 254 old aged patients (35.2% in females and 43.1% in males).The preference of Levofloxacin was 54% for the treatment of lower respiratory tract infections and ofloxacin 71.6% for the urinary tract infections. Gastrointestinal complications such as anorexia, vomiting and diarrhea related to ciprofloxacin and itching related dermatological complaints with levofloxacin was reported as AEs in one of the elderly and adult patient aged 67 and 63 respectively.

Discussion;

It has been revealed that quinolones were mostly used for the lower respiratory tract infection and urinary tract infection treatments of elderly patients in the emergency units and casts suspicion for frequent adverse events. However, the present impression with limited number of data points out that detailed future safety studies with quinolones are needed.