Antibiotic side effects

There is recent enhanced interest in the potential of medication to produce serious toxicity, and the television media have focused on the serious sid e effects and drug-drug interactions caused by antibiotics. In fact, a rece nt hospital study noted that drug-related toxicity was one of the most comm on causes of death for hospitalized patients. Antibiotic-induced adverse ev ents contribute to host injury diagnostic confusion and excessive medical c osts. In addition, however, a "spin-off" of antibiotic-induced adverse even ts is the emergence and dissemination of drug-resistant organisms. This chapter will describe the adverse events and drug-drug interactions pr oduced by those antibiotics that are most commonly prescribed to patients t o prevent or treat respiratory tract infections. An effort will also be mad e to focus on those unique settings (the patient with renal insufficiency, the patient receiving immunosuppressive medication, the pregnant patient, t he elderly patient, and the HIV-infected patient who is a candidate for pri mary or secondary prophylaxis for Pneumocystis carinii) that require a know ledge of antibiotic-induced adverse events.