Quinolones and risk of retinal detachment

Following previous work on the potential risk of acute liver failure associated with quinolone antibiotics, RSI investigators, Mohamed Taher, Franco Momoli, Donald Mattison and Daniel Krewski evaluated the potential risk of retinal detachment (RD) associated with these medications.

Although no cases of RD were linked to quinolones in clinical trials, some reports of RD were noted in the US FDA Adverse Event Reporting System in conjunction with systemic use of quinolone antibiotics. Analysis of electronic health records from over 500 US healthcare institutions revealed elevated but non-significant risks in African Americans (ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin), those aged 56–70 years old (moxifloxacin), and women (ciprofloxacin).

The authors noted that these suggestions of increased risk observed in some population subgroups warrant further investigation.