Metronidazole linked to peripheral and central nervous system toxicity

Metronidazole increased risk of adverse peripheral and central nervous system events compared to clindamycin, finds a new study.The case study has been published in the journal of Clinical Infectious Diseases.

There have been case reports describing instances of peripheral and central nervous system toxicity during treatment with metronidazole, however, no large-scale studies have examined this association.

The researchers conducted a population-based nested case control study of adults aged 66 years or older living in Ontario, Canada between April 1, 2003 to March 31, 2017. Eligible participants included those who visited hospital for any of cerebellar dysfunction, encephalopathy, or peripheral neuropathy within 100 days of a prescription for either metronidazole or clindamycin were included. They matched each case patient with up to 10 event-free control subjects who also received metronidazole or clindamycin.The conditional logistic regression to test the association between metronidazole exposure and neurologic events, with clindamycin as the reference exposure was carried out .