KE is a 72-year-old female residing in a long-term care facility. She was recently started on ciprofloxacin 500 mg PO BID for a complicated urinary tract infection caused by E. coli. Over the past week, nursing staff noticed she continued to spike fevers, complain of...
Nitrofurantoin is often used in patients for UTI prophylaxis. One potential concern with nitrofurantoin use is pulmonary toxicity. This can often be overlooked in patients as a potential cause of respiratory problems. Here’s a case scenario where nitrofurantoin...
EJ is a 54-year-old female with a history of rheumatoid arthritis. She has been on methotrexate (with folic acid supplementation) for years with relatively few RA flares over the last 10 years. She was recently diagnosed with a urinary tract infection and was...
Meningococcal Disease Background Meningococcal disease is a severe, life-threatening illness that may manifest as meningitis, bacteremia, or bacteremic pneumonia. Even with antibiotic treatment, mortality due to invasive disease is 10-15%. Up to 20% of persons who...
One thing I always encourage is critical thinking. Reviewing a diagnosis list will give you clues as to the likely medications that a patient is taking or should be taking if they are following guideline-based medication therapy. In this Bactrim CHF case study, I...
I stumbled into this case about Valtrex neurotoxicity on Linked In, and am so thankful that Kristin Speer, PharmD, BCPS let me share it. A physician attached a message for the care team to review: “Patient continues with dizziness, hallucinations, and...
