Antibiotics are one of the most commonly used medications in the United States due to the incidence of infections, but they are also infamous for causing some of the most severe side effects for patients. In particular, quinolone antibiotics have recently been under fire for the side effects patients incurred rather than the conditions they treat.

Liver damage has been one of the most thoroughly discussed among the potential quinolone side effects, with medical experts becoming concerned over just how common these injury reports seem to be becoming. Symptoms of liver damage depend on the extent of the injury, ranging from yellowish skin pigmentation to sudden ceasing of liver function.

While it is unknown to what exactly makes some patients more vulnerable to liver damage compared to others, some doctors believe it has to do with genetics or environment. Several years ago, Canadian researchers published a nine-year population study of patients who took quinolone antibiotics and had suffered some degree of liver damage.

This study was conducted as a collaborative effort by the Toronto Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and the University of Toronto. Additional resources came from the Ontario Departments of Medicine and Healthy Policy, Management and Evaluation. The research team was led by Dr. David N. Juurlink, a professor of clinical pharmacology at the University of Toronto and one of the lead researchers of liver disease.

Dr. Juurlink and his team analyzed patients in the Ontario hospital population who took moxifloxacin, levofloxacin, cefuroxime axetil, and ciprofloxacin. This study started in 2002 and ended in 2011, with the scientists observing the different quinolone side effects the patients experienced, compared to patients on clarithromycin. It is important to note that no one from the patient population had a history of liver injury or disease prior to this study.

The results of the study were grim for the quinolone front, as patients with moxifloxacin had double the chances of developing acute liver injury compared to clarithromycin patients, while levofloxacin patients showed they were twice as likely to suffer such complications.

In total, 144 patients suffered severe liver injury after 30 days of taking the antibiotics; 60 percent of them died of liver complications because the damage was so severe.

While the researchers were confident in their findings, they stated that further research was needed into the possibility of quinolone liver damage. Additionally, the researchers pointed out that the control group they used, the clarithromycin patients, were also at risk for developing liver injuries.

Furthermore, the Toronto researchers concluded that the occurrence of liver failure in antibiotic patients needs to be more closely observed, and will require more studies. In the meantime, healthcare providers are becoming increasingly cautious about prescribing quinolone drugs to patients.

Overview of Quinolone Liver Complications

As mentioned before, quinolones are popular antibiotics that are used to prevent and fight bacterial infections. They are known for being powerful, effective, and efficient and are among the most requested prescription drugs in the United States.

Unfortunately, these drugs have been recently linked to a variety of complications, with liver damage being one of the most widely reported. The concern of liver damage has been around since the late 1990s, with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sending out a warning in June 1999.

This warning addressed the risk of liver toxicity induced by the popular quinolone drug trovafloxacin (Trovan). This announcement was issued after 14 cases of acute liver failure had been reported.

Between the years of 1997 and 2010, the FDA Adverse Events Reporting System (AERS) has incurred 2,500 quinolone death reports, with an additional 45,000 quinolone adverse effect reports submitted in the same time period.

As of now, thousands of people across the United States are filing antibiotic lawsuits against quinolone manufacturing companies, alleging negligence, false advertising, concealing information, and misrepresenting a product.