Dosage and intake
Avalox® is usually taken orally as a tablet. As a rule, Avalox® is taken once a day with a dose of 400mg. It can be taken independently of meals.
The duration of use of Avalox® varies depending on the disease being treated. If there is an acute outbreak of chronic bronchitis, Avalox® should be taken for between five and ten days. The recommended duration of use is ten days in the case of pneumonia and seven days in the case of sinusitis.
If oral therapy with tablets is not possible, Avalox® can also be given directly via an infusion in the case of severe infections. Before taking it, it is important to inform the treating doctor about any drug allergies that may exist and about any other drugs taken at the same time in order to avoid interactions and allergic reactions. It is also important that Avalox® is taken for the same length of time as prescribed by the attending doctor.
While taking Avalox®, it is important to also inform other doctors, for example the dentist, about the current intake of the medication. Furthermore, the attending physician must be informed about any existing pregnancy, current breastfeeding of an infant or an existing desire to have children in order to adequately advise the patient about the advantages and disadvantages of taking Avalox® under these circumstances. In the event of an overdose of Avalox®, the patient’s stomach should be pumped out while ensuring an adequate supply of fluids.
Because of the side effects of Avalox® on the QT interval, the patient should be monitored by ECG. It is also advisable to give the patient activated carbon so that the systemic concentration of Avalox® can be reduced. If a very high dose of Avalox® has already reached the bloodstream, haemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis may be useful.
Side effects
As with all medicines, Avalox® can also cause side effects. However, there are no side effects that are observed very frequently. Frequently (between 1 and 10 percent of patients), gastrointestinal symptoms can occur, such as: rarely, so-called QT syndrome, a life-threatening heart disease, which can, however, also be triggered by some other adverse drug side effects.
QT syndrome usually only occurs if the patient suffers from a low potassium level (hypokalemia), which is why it is useful to determine the patient’s potassium level or ask him or her about classic symptoms before starting therapy with Avalox®. Among the very rare (less than 1 in 10,000) but more serious side effects are various forms of liver damage. For this reason, therapy with Avalox® can lead to severe and fulminant inflammation of the liver (hepatitis), which can extend to complete liver failure.
In addition to the side effects on the liver, taking Avalox® can also lead to Lyell syndrome (toxic epidermal necrolysis), a blistery detachment of the uppermost layer of skin, similar to a severe burn. Other very rare side effects caused by taking Avalox® are problems with the nerves in the hands and feet (irreversible peripheral neuropathy) and inflammation of tendons (tendonitis), which can even lead to tendon rupture. The following can also occur during therapy with Avalox®: These side effects occur extremely rarely, but they do cause doctors to use Avalox® only when other antibiotics with few side effects have not worked or cannot be used for other reasons. – Nausea (nausea)
- Vomiting (emesis)
- Diarrhoea (diarrhoea) or
- Abdominal pain
- Pseudomembranous colitis
- Colitis
- Psychotic reactions and
- Steven-Johnson syndrome