This is a new guideline from BTS, which outlines how to safely prescribe long term macrolide therapy in respiratory conditions. It was published in Apr 20.
Most of the time, long term macrolide therapy will be initiated in secondary care. However we may well be the ones actually writing the prescription, so it is worth being aware of some of the safety concerns.
New points for me were:
- The need for ECG and LFT before and during therapy.
- The potential ototoxic effects.