Ceftriaxone and the Risk of Ventricular Arrhythmia, Cardiac Arrest, and Death Among Patients Receiving Lansoprazole

The combination of ceftriaxone and lansoprazole has been shown to prolong the corrected QT interval on electrocardiogram. However, it is unknown whether this translates to clinically important patient outcomes.

To compare lansoprazole with another proton pump inhibitor (PPI) during ceftriaxone treatment in terms of risk for ventricular arrhythmia, cardiac arrest, and in-hospital mortality.

A retrospective cohort study including adult medical inpatients receiving ceftriaxone with lansoprazole or another PPI in 13 hospitals in Ontario, Canada, was conducted from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2021.

Lansoprazole during ceftriaxone treatment vs other PPIs during ceftriaxone treatment.

The primary outcome was a composite of ventricular arrhythmia or cardiac arrest that occurred after hospital admission. The secondary outcome was all-cause in-hospital mortality. Propensity-score weighting was used to adjust for covariates including hospital site, demographic characteristics, comorbidities, risk factors for ventricular arrhythmia, illness severity, admitting diagnoses, and concomitant medications.

Of the 31 152 patients hospitalized on internal medicine wards who were treated with ceftriaxone while receiving a PPI, 16 135 patients (51.8%) were male, and the mean (SD) age was 71.7 (16.0) years. The study included 3747 patients in the lansoprazole group and 27 405 patients in the other PPI group. Ventricular arrhythmia or cardiac arrest occurred in 126 patients (3.4%) within the lansoprazole group and 319 patients (1.2%) within the other PPI group. In-hospital mortality occurred in 746 patients (19.9%) within the lansoprazole group and 2762 patients (10.1%) in the other PPI group. After weighting using propensity scores, the adjusted risk difference for the lansoprazole group minus other PPI group was 1.7% (95% CI, 1.1%-2.3%) for ventricular arrhythmia or cardiac arrest and 7.4% (95% CI, 6.1%-8.8%) for in-hospital mortality.

The findings of this cohort study suggest that combination therapy with lansoprazole and ceftriaxone should be avoided. More studies are needed to determine whether these findings could be replicated in other populations and settings.