Ciprofloxacin.....

[London1492]

First off, my heart and prayers go out to anyone diagnosed with or anyone with a loved one diagnosed with ALS. I lost my brother to what seemed to be ALS in 2012. My brother was diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy in 2003 after being prescribed Ciprofloxacin for infections on a couple occasions prior to this. He was later diagnosed with ALS by the Mayo Clinic almost 5 to 6 years later. Crazy thing is his neurologist never diagnosed him with ALS because he couldn't confirm it. I have a question for anyone here who may have input. The FDA released a warning last year stating Ciprofloxacin can cause permanent nerve damage. Has anyone here ever taken Ciprofloxacin or known anyone who's taken Ciprofloxacin that later came down with peripheral neuropathy or ALS?

 

[bigmark1954]

My experience with Ciprofloacin is that it is used for stubborn infections, where more common antibiotics are not effective.
My son is a paraplegic from an auto accident many years back, he was put on cipro for a bedsore that created a bone infection. Cautioned to only use it for 10 days, because it is something you don't want to delvelope a resistance to, it is a last resort when more common antibiotics have no affect on the infection.
I doubt it would have any neurological effect, being used as a short term dosage.
It is also used extensively in Veterinary medicine. It has very good spectrum for birds and reptiles as well.

Disclaimer....I used to play a doctor on TV. So you might want to Google it for more info.

 

[Atsugi]

"peripheral neuropathy or ALS" is an interesting pairing. It's like saying "cancer or a heart attack". Both are diseases, but very different.

I'm not a doctor.

Getting nerve damage from Cipro seems to be very rare. Importantly, the "nerve damage" that the government warns about is in the "peripheral nerves" which can be very painful. By contrast, ALS affects two sets of Motor Nerves--the UMN in the brain and the LMN around the brainstem.

I'll happily yield to anyone with real knowledge of neurology, but that's my understanding. Cipro can rarely cause damage to the peripheral nerves, but not the motor nerves.

 

[Diane H]

I have taken Cipro twice. The first time was because I had pseudomonas in my lungs and it didn't respond to newer antibiotics. It worked but pseudomonas is rarely eliminated, just sent into "hibernation" to wait for your immune system to weaken or be stressed. Then it can come back. The second time I was on it was while I was undergoing radiation treatments after a mastectomy. I seemed to be getting a bit congested so I took it to ward off having the pseudomonas get revved up. All of this was after 20 years of ALS and after being trached and put on a ventilator. Neither time did my progression speed up after the Cipro.