Category: Disease Interactions
Disease Interactions B/W Clindamycin And Colitis
| November 21, 2011 | Posted by admin under Disease Interactions |
Clindamycin is a drug that is very commonly used to treat various types of infections that are very severe in nature. It is a drug that works really well on serious types of surface skin infections and also some very difficult and hard to heal soft tissue infection. It is also used for treating abdominal infections especially those of the stomach and also it is commonly prescribed for women who have infection of the pelvis. Though it is generally a very safe drug and has been used for the past so many years, there are some specific instances where this drug has caused what is known as pseudo membranous colitis when the drug has been used for a long period of time. Let us try and find out how there could be disease interactions B/W clindamycin and colitis over the next few lines.
It is a known fact that there have been many instances where colitis has been reported on patients whenever they are on some form of antibacterial treatment. The infection could range from mild and at time it could be life-threatening. The problem is that the onset of such infection, particularly when one uses Clindamycin could take place after a lapse of several weeks and hence the patient or the healthcare provider may not be knowing that such attacks of colitis have taken place because of the use of this particular antibiotic. This happens because use of Clindamycin can change the normal flora inside the colon. It could also be the reason for the growth of a substance called Clostridium Difficile which has a very powerful toxin. This toxin could be considered as the main reason for what is known as antibiotic-associated colitis.
The main manifestation of this type of drug induced colitis is generally associated with diarrhea which is very severe and very persistent. It also comes with severe cramps in the abdominal area and could also result in the passage of blood and mucus along with stool. Therefore, it is very important to exercise much caution while administering patients with drugs like Clindamycin. This is because they have severe antibacterial activity and hence it could create a lot of problems with a number of patients. Patients who have a history of gastrointestinal problems should be given this medical under strict medical supervision. Even the slightest gastrointestinal activity should be referred to the health care providers and the drug should be immediately discontinued.
Patients who have a history of colitis attacks are known to be very vulnerable when they are administered drug like Clindamycin. If such symptoms occur the patient apart from being discontinued with the drug should also undergo stool cultures to find out whether he or she has been infected with Clostridium Difficile. Asking the patient to go through Difficile Toxin test could help to diagnose whether he or she has been infected with colitis that is caused because of drug intake such as Clindamycin. In very severe cases the doctor may also ask the patient to undergo a large bowel endoscopy to find out whether the affect of the drug is very severe on the patient.
Hence there is no denying the fact that once if a patient is affected with any severe colitis; the first thing that should be done is to find out whether the patient was on a course of Clindamycin with the past few weeks of months. This is important because as described above, the manifestation and occurrence of colitis could take place after a long time.
If you are not sure about it, it would be better to take the help and assistance from the internet where there is a lot of information about the various cases where patients have been severely affected with colitis because of prolonged use of Clindamycin. Alternately, it would be better to always keep your health care provider updated and informed with any changes that could occur to your bowel movements when you are on this particular drug. Though in general this drug is well tolerated, it would be better to exercise caution while using this drug on patients whose history of colitis related infections is not clean. It is always better to exercise caution rather than ending up in trouble. However, at the end of the day the doctor is the main person who can decide such matters.
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