Suggest Treatment For Pain And Swelling In The Fingers While On Bactrim

Posted on Thu, 13 Apr 2017

Question: Was prescribed bactrim for an index finger that got infected after 5 tablets pain and swelling was not reduced.
Dr prescribed second antibiotic clindamycin 300mg 3xday for 7 days. A year ago I got c diff from a broad spectrum antibiotic. Will clindamycin give me more gi problems and if so can you suggest an alternative?

Answered by Dr. Panagiotis Zografakis (43 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
can't be predicted

Detailed Answer:
Hello,

the potential side effects on your gastrointestinal system and antibiotic-associated diarrhea in particular cannot be predicted with certainty. Factors like a previous attack of diarrhea after taking antibiotics, the extremes of age (less than 6 and more than 65 years), medical history burdened with serious disorders, recent hospitalization, immunosuppression, etc may increase the risk.

Clindamycin is definitely one of the drugs that may cause diarrhea. I can't say whether it will cause more problems than bactrim but it doesn't really matter because bactrim was not effective in your case. Alternative treatments depend on the suspected pathogen. Effective treatments for Staphylococcus (for example) include bactrim and clindamycin. If the Staphylococcus is methicillin-sensitive then flucloxacillin and first generation cephalosporins can also be used. For methicillin-resistant strains linezolid is a very potent antibiotic that can be given by mouth. For other pathogens the treatment may differ.

I would have gone with your doctor's advise. You can use probiotics as a preventive measure against diarrhea. They're not always effective but they may help. Saccharomyces boulardii is one of them.

I hope it helps!
Kind Regards!

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar