Tetracyclines, Macrolides and Linezolid: In a Nutshell (Nursing)

00:01 Okay, let's wrap up this group of meds.

00:04 There are some potentially life- threatening adverse effects, and I want to make sure that you didn't miss them.

00:09 Now, C. diff associated diarrhea can cause some major problems because you have issues with fluid volume loss.

00:17 Now, anytime you have diarrhea, you have more water leaving the body than should be because the waste is going through the body so quick.

00:26 It's meant to go through the gut slowly, so you're having more water leave the body than should be.

00:32 That means your patient is at increased risk for low blood pressure, hypotensive, and risk for falls.

00:39 So, you want to watch someone very closely who has C. diff diarrhea, because we're going to really have a problem with hypotension, risk for falls, because of that low blood pressure, they'll get really dizzy.

00:51 So the meds that can cause C. diff associated diarrhea, besides being really stinky, if I haven't made that point clear yet, are clindamycin and tetracyclines.

01:02 Torsades de point is that life-threatening cardiac disrhythmia.

01:06 You want to remember that's an issue with the macrolides, erythromycin.

01:10 Liver damage or hepatotoxicity, that can be caused by tetracyclines and dalfopristin/quinupristin.

01:17 Renal toxicity, nephrotoxicity or damage to the kidneys can be caused by the tetracyclines.

01:23 Now, remember that it's reversible, but you can have that bone marrow suppression, myelosuppression, of the white cells, the red cells, the platelets, or all of them.

01:33 That can happen.

01:35 Now, this family of drugs can mess with some super bugs and that's really good, so we've got some tools in our tool belt to deal with them. For MRSA, you can use linezolid.

01:45 That's remember, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

01:49 The treatment of VRE, vancomycin- resistant enterococcus, is linezolid and dalfopristin/quinupristin.

01:56 So, this slide is really important.

01:59 Do whatever you do in your notes to highlight that, but it's important, as a nurse and as a nursing student, that you keep in mind that these medications should only be used for very serious infections, so we don't make the same mistakes that we've made in the past.

02:14 Thank you for watching our video on this family of antibiotics.