This article will be devoted to a detailed description of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin (Cipro). As well as its proper use in UTI infections.
First of all, what is Cipro?
Ciprofloxacin (Cipro) is a fluoroquinolone antibiotic. It has a wide range of actions against both Gram-negative and Gram-positive aerobic bacteria.
For the treatment of uncomplicated cystitis, non-fluoroquinolone drugs such as nitrofurantoin, fosfomycin, amoxicillin, amoxicillin + clavulanic acid are generally safe and effective.
These antibiotic agents are considered the first-line treatment for UTI, while fluoroquinolones should be used, where possible, for complicated infections such as pyelonephritis (kidney infection).
In addition to the urinary tract, Cipro has a beneficial effect on other infections such as respiratory, skin, and some gastrointestinal infections.
When ciprofloxacin fails to cure the infection, don’t panic, your doctor will prescribe another antibiotic to treat the infection.
Worst case scenario
If Cipro is not working, an IV antibiotic such as ceftriaxone, amikacin, vancomycin, or maybe meropenem is used for some specific cases of UTI.
How to fix if Cipro doesn’t work
Co-administration of phenazopyridine may increase the performance of ciprofloxacin.
Phenazopyridine belongs to the group of analgesics, which has a beneficial effect on the urinary tract, alleviating pain, discomfort, and spasms of the bladder.
It is important to say that phenazopyridine dyes urine, it is a normal occurrence and should not scare you.
The use of fosfomycin in combination with ciprofloxacin has been clinically proven to enhance bacterial killing.
Phosphomycin is a group of antibiotics used to treat uncomplicated urinary infections. Its good feature is that it has a bactericidal action (causes bacterial death) and together with ciprofloxacin which is also a bactericidal agent, makes a very good combination.
Dosage
Formulations of ciprofloxacin (Cipro)
It is available as 250mg, 500mg, and 750mg tablets.
It is available as 500 mg prolonged-release tablets (Cipro HR) and at 1000 mg. Then there are intravenous preparations.
Cipro can also be used as an oral suspension powder of 250ml / 5ml and 500mg /5ml.
If your doctor prescribes ciprofloxacin in the form of a syrup, you should always make sure that you vigorously shake the bottle before use, because not doing so will reduce the effectiveness of the drug due to your mistake, since Cipro is generally a good choice for bacteria that cause UTI.
The best way of using Cipro: 250 mg – 500 mg per 12 hours, 7 – 14 days.
Doctors generally prescribe Cipro (ciprofloxacin) correctly because it is always used for 12 hours, and because its a well known antibiotic also.
What are other human errors that cause Cipro to not work?
Do not take Cipro at higher doses or longer than your doctor has recommended.
Follow the medication instructions carefully. Continue to use it after the symptoms have stopped or felt well. The symptoms you have may improve before the infection is completely cured.
Take Cipro with a full glass of water. Drink a few extra glasses of liquid each day while taking Cipro. People do not bring enough fluid in with medicine.
Do not crush, chew, or break the tablet. Swallow the pill whole, as the medicine slowly releases into the body. Discontinuing the tablet would cause too much medicine to be discarded at the same time.
Many of us happened to have taken a pill without water because of the rush, or we hated to get up or there was no water nearby. However, this is not a good thing we did, it can be a dangerous mistake.
When you drink medicine with water in addition to making it easy to swallow, it also helps prevent the tablet from getting stuck in the esophagus, which can lead to various discomforts.
Esophagitis, esophageal inflammation may occur.
What does esophagitis have to do with UTI? If you have inflammation of the esophagus, you will not be able to use your therapy for UTI because of the pain (since the most appropriate way to take the therapy is oral), thus exacerbating UTI.
Interactions
Probenecid (a drug used in gout) interacts with ciprofloxacin and this can increase as much as 50 percent of serum ciprofloxacin levels. And we know that increasing concentrations of ciprofloxacin can create more resistant bacteria, weakening immunity.
Therefore, Cipro will not work for UTI. In this case, many would use moxifloxacin (Avelok®), which is also a fluoroquinolone group, since no dose adjustment of moxifloxacin is required when probenecid is administered concomitantly.
Many people think that moxifloxacin from the fluoroquinolone group has an effect on UTI infections, but this is not true.
No effect on UTI infections, no effect on UTIs like Cipro, levofloxacin, ofloxacin.
In this case, sulfamethoxazole + trimethoprim may be administered which will act on the UTI.
Persons suffering from myasthenia gravis and using appropriate therapy will have a problem if their doctor prescribes Cipro for acute UTI because it may impair their primary disease.
Cipro would work great with UTI, but because it disrupts myasthenia gravis, it must be replaced with another antibiotic that can be used in this disease.
These are ceftriaxone, ceftazidime (they are used for complicated UTIs), and for milder forms of UTIs, Keflex, amoxicillin, is used.
Ciprofloxacin is contraindicated in patients with epilepsy. However, this is no problem. In this case, the doctor may prescribe cotrimoxazole.
Cipro may interact with medicines used in diabetes therapy. In some cases, it can reduce sugar but also increase the sugar.
Use caution when used together, as sugar may deteriorate and, as a result, may worsen with UTI. In this case, Cipro will work, but blood sugar needs to be controlled more often.
Ciprofloxacin (Cipro) belongs to the group of photosensitive drugs, drugs that are sensitive to sunlight. Taking St. John’s wort in combination with Cipro may favor this reaction, which results in severe allergies such as tides or wasps on parts of the skin exposed to sunlight.
In such cases, the doctor may decide to discontinue the therapy, so Cipro will not exert its effect since, for the antibiotic to exert its effect, it must take at least 2 or 3 days.
If you are at sea and have a UTI that holds with Cipro, you must adhere strictly to avoiding exposure to the strongest sun from 11 am to 5 pm for Cipro to work.
Cipro may interact with clozapine (a drug for psychiatric disorders), which also increases blood sugar levels. So if you have UTI while using clozapine therapy, Cipro will work, but you need to be careful and control your blood sugar levels more often.
Cipro can react with caffeine and then increase the level of caffeine in the blood.
Caffeine is very aggressive for the urinary tract, irritates the bladder, and causes frequent urination.
If you are in treatment with Cipro for UTI and want to drink a cup of coffee, in this case, it is best to use decaffeinated coffee. (you can read my article can I drink decaf coffee with a UTI).
Cipro can reduce the effect of levothyroxine used to treat hypothyroidism (reduced thyroid function) and completely slow down all metabolism.
This causes the immune system to weaken, then Cipro cannot act on bacteria for UTI. Then it is necessary to make a gap between Cipro and levothyroxine for 4 hours, then Cipro can work because it reaches high concentrations in the urinary system.
Do not take ciprofloxacin with dairy products while undergoing treatment for UTIs such as milk or yogurt, or with foods rich in calcium (cereals).
You can eat or drink dairy or calcium-fortified foods with a regular meal, but do not use them only when you take ciprofloxacin.
You could make the drug less effective or ineffective. Therefore, ciprofloxacin is used 1 hour before or 4 hours after dairy.
In such cases, resistance to Cipro has developed, which has increased in recent years.
The use of fennel should be avoided when administering ciprofloxacin as interaction occurs.
Fennel reduces Cipro concentration and reduces its effect. Don’t panic if Cipro doesn’t work in that situation.
There are medicines that can be given in this case, for example, ceftriaxone, ceftazidime, amikacin.
Incorrect Cipro prescribing situations where it can lead to the drug not working for UTI
1. It is not effective in anaerobic (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) infections that cause UTI but very rarely.
2. For viruses. They almost never cause UTI but can happen in people who have organ transplants or impaired immunity.
3. Misdiagnosis. Trichomonas Vaginalis. In men, symptoms may occur that may resemble the symptoms of a UTI infection since they do not have the abundant, foamy, and greenish secretion that is characteristic of Trichomonas.
So this gives a false picture of UTI, and thus gets the wrong therapy.
4. Adults with a lack of renal function should not take Cipro. It can aggravate their UTI. Older people with CNS deficiency (epilepsy) should also not use Cipro.
5. There are chocolates that have high levels of caffeine in their composition, so be careful and read the instructions on the chocolate to avoid any further problems with your UTI infection.
Side Effects
Fluoroquinolones, which include Cipro, are broad-spectrum antibiotics and are widely used and have relatively few side effects.
The most common side effects are nausea, abdominal discomfort, headache, and dizziness. Hallucinations, delirium, and seizures rarely occur.
Doctors may sometimes forget to ask a patient a very important question, whether you are allergic to Cipro? Whether you are allergic to fluoroquinolones? And whether someone in your immediate family has had an allergic reaction to Cipro?
In this case, there are many drugs that can replace it, and this may be best told by your doctor or pharmacist.
Cipro should be stored for complicated UTIs as it can lead to serious side effects such as tendinitis and tendon rupture especially in the elderly. And finally to the rupture of the Achilles tendon.
Cipro use in the elderly
Since immunity is weakened in the elderly and also kidney function, in some cases the dose of the drug must be reduced to avoid accumulation and side effects.
Cipro is not used in pregnant women.
If pregnant women have a UTI, the doctor must prescribe alternative antibiotics for use in pregnancy.
Resistance
Ciprofloxacin does not belong to the group of antibiotics that patients will take on their own.
In the past few years, bacterial resistance to fluoroquinolones such as Cipro has increased.
Here is one reason why resistance to Cipro has increased in recent years.
The use of Cipro is increasing in veterinary practice, which is transmitted to humans as a consequence, as they feed on Cipro-treated animal meat (to treat some infections in these animals).
Vegetarians have the advantage here.
Due to bacterial resistance to other antibiotics such as penicillins and cephalosporins, Cipro is more effective against many bacteria.
Ciprofloxacin can be used for uncompromised low-dose UTI infections for only a few days, but this is not correct. Because there are antibiotics that are used to complicated UTIs such as Macrobid, Keflex, Amoxicillin.
It is for this reason that it is used for the treatment of compound UTI infection accompanied by fever and chills, which is characteristic of the upper urinary tract.
Cipro is effective in community-acquired infections and hospital-acquired infections E. coli, but resistance to fluoroquinolones has increased in the last decade due to their use for uncomplicated UTI infections.
That is why this situation is very scary and worrying to us, as the precise regulation of the administration of this drug should be made globally.
this is just a nice view for you to look at
Summary
1. Cipro is a broad-spectrum antibiotic, acting on both Gram-positive and Gram-negative aerobic bacteria.
2. Cipro is very good for treating UTI, especially very complicated urinary tract infections.
3. Always be careful when taking Cipro with other medicines that treat other ailments or take care of the foods you eat or drink while you are being treated with Cipro for UTI.
4. And of course, be careful not to make any mistakes that people may inadvertently make so that the effect of the drug may be reduced or the effect of the drug may be omitted altogether.
5. Keep Cipro only for complicated infections.
This article gives you some of the most basic facts about ciprofloxacin (Cipro), which is widely used in UTI therapy.
I hope it will be much clearer to you now if you are using this medicine to treat UTI, how and how to maximize its effectiveness, and to get rid of those uncomfortable symptoms as soon as possible and to carry out your daily activities without any problems.
Thanks for reading and reading the article to the end. Of course, you have other very interesting topics for UTI on my site that can give you very useful tips. See you around.
and don’t forget to check the other articles on this website KNOW AND TREAT UTI