Association Between Fluoroquinolone Use and Hospitalization with Aortic Aneurysm or Aortic Dissection

The risk of dissection associated with fluoroquinolone use has gained wide acceptance, but recent data indicate there’s more to the story. Pasternak and colleagues report a Swedish, multicenter, propensity-matched study of one million treatment episodes examining the relationship between fluoroquinolone use and aneurysm or dissection. Interestingly, after adjustment for confounders, the absolute risk of aneurysm or dissection associated with fluoroquinolone use was smaller than previously reported, risk was found to be driven by aneurysm rather than dissection, and greatest risk was identified in the first ten days during treatment.