Patient was educated on the side effects of using Ciprofloxacin as follows:
- Nausea and vomiting
- This is the most common side effect of Ciprofloxacin. Taking the antibiotic with some food and water can minimize the effects of nausea and vomiting.
- Diarrhea
- Human intestines have a lot of bacteria, both good and bad, living in a sensitive balance with each other.
- This helps maintain the normal natural intestinal environment.
- Ciprofloxacin works by killing the bacteria. While doing this, Ciprofloxacin does not differentiate between good and bad bacteria.
- Consequently, apart from killing the bad infectious bacteria, Ciprofloxacin also kills the good bacteria in the intestinal system, thus compromising the balance between good and bad bacteria.
- This can result in reduction in the number of good bacteria and increase in the number of Ciprofloxacin resistant bad bacteria, leading to irritation of the intestinal mucosa and diarrhea.
- Diarrhea secondary to the clostridium difficile bacteria in the intestines, is a standard example for this.
- Central nervous system findings
- Ciprofloxacin use can sometimes result in severe dizziness, confusion, hallucinations, tremors, and seizures.
