Levaquin Dosage

Levaquin is an antibiotic belonging to a family of antibiotics known as the fluoroquinalones. Levaquin is a brand name for levofloxacin; it is the L isomer of the ofloxacin antibiotic, and has recently become available as a generic drug. Levaquin is among the later drugs in its class and has higher efficacy against gram positive bacteria like those common in respiratory infections than the earlier fluoroquinalones like ciprofloxacin. Levaquin is used to treat inhaled anthrax in adult and children, but is more commonly used in serious respiratory infections like pneumonia and urinary tract infections. Some experts recommend against widespread use of Levaquin as it seems that it is more prone to lead to bacterial resistance to the fluoroquinalone class of drugs than others in the class.

Levaquin dosage ranges from 250mg to a maximum of 750mg daily. The duration of treatment depends on the infection and usually takes a week for infection to resolve. Levaquin dosage has to be adjusted for liver and kidney patients because in toxic levels Levaquin causes liver damage. In elderly patients and those with renal insufficiency the usual Levaquin dosage is 250 mg daily. Tendonitis and even Achilles tendon rupture is an unusual but significant concern when treating an infection with this medication.

Levaquin overuse has led to increasing antibiotic resistance to this very important class of drugs, and in general Levaquin use should be restricted to refractory infections, or infections where other antibiotic options are limited.

Read our related page on Levaquin side effects and please drop a comment below.