Levaquin: Potential Tendon Problems a Serious Limitation

Titusville, NJThe problem with a drug prescribed for one malady, yet having a serious side effect impacting a totally different part of the body, is the surprise with which the occurrence often happens. Such is the case with Levaquin, an antibiotic used to treat infections—and its relationship to tendonitis and ruptured tendons.

So what's the big deal, you may ask? People get tendonitis all the time, especially weekend jocks who punish themselves through gruelling bouts of tennis and other activities. Tendon injury is part of the game, an expected opponent that can be overcome by the young, healthy patient.

But what if you're not young and healthy? What if you're not a runner, a squash player, or physically active to such an extent where some physical injury might be reasonably expected?

And when you're older, you sure don't heal as fast as you used to—if you heal, at least completely, at all.

That's the rub with Levaquin, an antibiotic known generically as levofloxacin, with membership in the quinolone family of antibiotic drugs. It may do a wonderful job of eradicating a bacterial infection from your system. But in doing so, it may serve as the genesis for debilitating tendonitis and more serious forms of tendon injury that could leave you in dire straits.

The concern is such that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has mandated a black box warning for Levaquin, the agency's most stringent warning save from banning a drug from the market altogether. The black box warning—any black box warning—says that this drug has potentially serious consequences that could affect the patient in dramatic fashion.

And yet, some patients don't know, because they either haven't read the information, or lack any awareness of the importance of, or even the existence of such a warning. Worse, their doctor or pharmacists may have failed to mention the side effect.

Most people, especially extremely busy adults and overly trusting seniors, have an inbred sense that a drug has but one function for which it was prescribed, and that's that. Looking beyond the intended use just isn't in their radar.

The problem with an adverse affect that relates to the tendon, is that we depend so much on our tendons for basic mobility, even though we fail to understand just what they are and how they work. And, sadly, we don't understand just how important they are, until they fail us.

The results can be devastating, and especially for patients over 60 who are at greatest risk for developing tendonitis and ruptured tendon. The older the patient, the longer it takes for such injuries to heal. What's more, the Achilles tendon is notoriously slow to heal, even in young, healthy patients.

A serious tendon injury can result in devastating mobility issues that can amount to more than mere inconvenience. Mobility can be severely affected, and this can have dramatic consequences for someone living alone. There may be expensive home care required, and medical bills that could prove a hardship for anyone with limited health coverage, or financial resources.

One paramedic writes in a blog that he felt his shoulder 'pop' a few days after starting a regimen of Levaquin for an infection. He also has pre-existing pain in his knees and joints that has been heightened by the Levaquin he is taking—and he is considering abandoning the paramedic ranks, and thus his career, as a result of popping a couple of seemingly innocent pills prescribed to him by his doctor.

A doctor, by the way, who failed to inform his patient as to the potential side effects of Levaquin.

Sounds like the perfect basis for a lawsuit.

Levaquin is manufactured by Ortho-McNeil, a division of Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc.