Many Different Types of Tendon Rupture in Levaquin Lawsuits

Levaquin (levofloxacin) is an antibiotic which is prescribed to prevent bacteria from rapidly reproducing, causing infection.  It is part of a class of antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones.  Although many of the reported cases of tendon ruptures have been one of the painful side effects of Levaquin, this condition has also been seen with the use of other antibiotics which are part of this class, including Cipro. A tendon rupture is a painful and debilitating injury which can require surgery and substantial recovery time.  The most common injury is Levaquin tendon rupture involving the: achilles tendon, shoulder and hand. In December, a federal jury ruled that the drug makers failed to adequately warn about the risk of Levaquin tendon ruptures,

and awarded the plaintiff in that case, John Schedin, $1.8 million in damages. However, in June a different jury sided with Johnson & Johnson, saying that the label warnings were adequate enough to reject 84-year-old Calvin Christensen’s Levaquin tendon rupture claim.

The FDA has received reports of hundreds of individuals who experienced a tendon rupture using Levaquin, Cipro or one of the other fluoroquinolones. As a result of the inadequate warnings currently provided, the consumer advocacy group, Public Citizen, filed a lawsuit in January 2008 as a result of the FDA's failure to act on a petition they filed in 2006, calling for more detailed information about the risk of Levaquin tendon ruptures to be added to the warning label. There are more than 2,600 similar lawsuits pending against Johnson & Johnson over tendon damage caused by Levaquin, according to a report by Bloomberg.

Fluoroquinolones like Levaquin and Avelox are the largest subset of quinolones, a family of broad-spectrum antibiotics. They are used to treat a variety of bacterial infections, including acute sinusitis, bronchitis, and pneumonia. Fluoroquinolone use may result in other rare but severe and even life-threatening side effects. If additional information had been provided earlier to doctors and patients, many individuals may have been able to prevent a tendon rupture or permanent damage by seeking medical treatment at the first sign of pain or inflammation.