Cefepime Induced Neurotoxicity:
A Case Series
OR01-OR05
Correspondence
Dr. Sukanto Kishore Das,
AMRI Hospitals, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.
E-mail: drsukantdas@yahoo.co.in
Cefepime is a broad-spectrum antimicrobial which is widely used for the treatment of both gram positive and gram negative pathogens, mainly in hospital setup for critically ill patients. Its half-life is around two hours and is primarily excreted via kidneys. However, in patients with renal impairment the half-life increases upto 13 hours. This may cause drug accumulation leading to several toxicities, of which neurotoxicity is of prime concern. Missing the diagnosis of these symptoms related to cefepime it may lead to increase in mortality or central nervous system dysfunction. Dose adjustment is recommended in such cases; however, several reports of neurological manifestations have been documented despite such modification. Here, authors reported six cases of cefepime induced neurotoxicity. The symptoms that the patients reported with were drowsiness, disorientation, non convulsive epilepsy, slurred speech, tremors and myoclonic jerks. In all patients, cefepime was withdrawn and symptomatic management with antiepileptic drug and monitoring with repeat Electroencephalogram (EEG) were done.