What should I do after taking ceftriaxone and drinking alcohol?

Cephalexin is a common anti-inflammatory drug in daily life. It can be used to treat inflammation, pneumonia, and respiratory tract infections. However, you should not drink alcohol after taking cephalosporin. Drinking alcohol can easily cause poisoning reactions and lead to panic, heart palpitations, or dizziness. There are many treatment methods for drinking alcohol after taking cephalosporin. It needs to be treated in time, and it can also be treated through gastric lavage.

What should I do if I drink alcohol after taking ceftriaxone?

Taking cephalosporins after drinking alcohol may cause reactions such as facial flushing, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, headache, dizziness, drowsiness, chest tightness, palpitations, blurred vision, and even serious symptoms such as low blood pressure, difficulty breathing, confusion, and shock. This is due to the "disulfiram reaction" caused by the reaction of cephalosporins with alcohol. "Disulfiram-like reaction" may cause severe reactions in some people depending on their physical condition, while others will be fine.

If the "disulfiram reaction" is mild, you can use your hands to press the throat to induce vomiting; and stop taking the medicine and ethanol-containing products in time;

If the "disulfiram reaction" is serious, the patient should be sent to the hospital immediately and receive oxygen and symptomatic treatment. The patient was placed in a supine position, given oxygen, and his vital signs were measured and recorded.

For treatment, gastric lavage can be performed to remove ethanol from the stomach and reduce ethanol absorption. Symptomatic treatments such as intravenous injection of dexamethasone or intramuscular injection of naloxone can be used. Liver protection treatments such as intravenous infusion of glucose solution and vitamin C can be used to promote ethanol metabolism and excretion.

Patients with angina pectoris need to improve coronary circulation, and those with low blood pressure can use pressor drugs, which can provide relief within a few hours. For patients in shock, intravenous access should be established quickly, crystalloid fluid should be replenished rapidly, and pressor drugs such as dopamine should be given when necessary. Active treatment should be carried out to shorten the hypotension period.

Precautions

Patients with existing cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases are also given ECG monitoring to closely observe changes in heart rate and rhythm.

Patients diagnosed with a disulfiram-like reaction should also undergo an electrocardiogram, blood routine, and electrolyte tests to rule out the coexistence of multiple diseases that may delay treatment.

Physical and chemical properties

Various cephalosporins are derivatives of cephalosporanic acid. Their free acids or substituted acids are organic acids and are generally insoluble in water. However, their potassium and sodium salts are easily soluble in water. Therefore, the injectable formulations of cephalosporins used in clinical practice are mainly made into sodium or potassium salts.

Cephalosporanic acid contains an unstable β-lactam ring and is easily hydrolyzed in the presence of water molecules. Alkali, acid and increased temperature can all promote hydrolysis. Therefore, most of the cephalosporin injections used in clinical practice are made into solid dosage forms of powder injections.

Cephalosporins for injection are mostly made into dry crystals or powders of sodium and potassium salts and sealed in ampoules. This powder injection ampoule can be stored at room temperature for 2 to 3 years and should be dissolved in injection solvent before use.

Cephalosporins for oral use are some varieties that have slightly higher chemical stability and can withstand gastric acid, such as cephalexin and cefadroxil, which are mostly made into tablets or capsules of free acid.

Mechanism of action

Similar to penicillin. It was initially believed that its only function was to inhibit transpeptidase and interfere with the synthesis of bacterial cell wall proteins. It has been shown that β-lactam compounds can also bind to certain proteins (β-lactam binding proteins), the essence of which may be some enzymes on the cell membrane. This changes the permeability of the bacterial cell membrane, inhibits protein synthesis, and releases autolysins, thereby having a bacteriolytic effect, or preventing the bacteria from dividing and growing into fibrous forms.