Management of antibiotic adverse events

Antibiotic-associated adverse drug events (ADEs) are common and diverse in clinical practice, yet healthcare professionals often lack sufficient understanding of them. An ill-considered change to an alternative agent whent symptoms of suspected ADEs appear can lead to excessive overuse and misuse of antibiotics. Proper management of ADEs is part of antimicrobial stewardship.

This review describes clinical characteristics, diagnosis and management of ADEs, featuring drug fever, rash, nephrotoxicity, liver injury, interstitial pneumonitis, rhabdomyolysis, encephalopathy, QT prolongation, thrombocytopenia and neutropenia.

Healthcare professionals should be familiar with the typical symptoms, time course and likely causative agent for each adverse reaction. Early detection and proper judgement are important. In sever case, early discontinuation of the causative agent and proper treatment are required. If it is not fatal, continuing the suspected agent and careful monitoring may help identify the causative agent. Especially in penicillin allergies, it is important to remember that most patients labeled as allergic are, in fact, misclassified.