Quinolones and tendon ruptures

We report two cases of tendon rupture associated with ciprofloxacin. One pa tient had a complete rupture of an Achilles tendon 6 months after taking th e medication. The other case involved a partial rupture of the subscapulari s tendon. Both ruptures occurred with minimal mechanical stress on the tend ons, suggesting that the fluoroquinolone increased the susceptibiliy to rup ture. We also review the literature describing the association between fluo roquinolones and tendon rupture and discuss the mechanisms explaining the h eightened risk of tendon rupture associated with these drugs.