Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Neurotoxicity of cefepime

All beta lactam antibiotics can cause neurotoxicity, chief among them penicillin and imepenem. A paper showing increased mortality associated with cefepime use suggested neurotoxicity, including encephalopathy and non-convulsive status epilepticus, may be responsible for the increased mortality. Now comes this report suggesting severe neurotoxicity of cefepime in patients with renal failure. I have access only to the abstract, but a review citing this report suggested that cefepime was not renally adjusted and some patients were massively overdosed.

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