Pregnancy outcomes in women reporting exposure to ofloxacin in early pregnancy

Abstract This study aimed to analyse perinatal outcomes in ofloxacin-exposed pregnancies. This prospective study was conducted on 143 singleton pregnancies between January 2001 and April 2014, after oral ofloxacin exposure in the first trimester. A total of 33 exposed mothers were compared with 110 age-matched controls who were not exposed to teratogen. The mean maternal age was 31.4 ± 3.6 years, and the median gestational age was 4.1 weeks at the exposure. No significant differences were observed in either gestational age or in the foetal ultrasonographic long bone length between the exposed and control groups. Spontaneous abortions occurred without a significant difference (6.1% versus 10.0%, p = .733). In addition, no significant differences were found in either the stillbirths or in the major birth defects between the exposed and control groups (0% versus 2.0%, p = 1.000 and 0% versus 4.0%, p = .572, respectively). Ofloxacin has no significant effect on perinatal outcomes. Impact statement What is already known on this subject? Ofloxacin and other quinolones are avoided during pregnancy because of concerns about cartilage toxicity. But we do not find human data reporting such toxicity in a case report. What the results of this study add? Previous studies were designed for evaluation of just congenital anomaly. But in this study, we measured the fetal long bone length to replace for evaluation of fetal cartilage toxicity. In fetal stage, we can not measure the cartilage of fetus. so we measure fetal long bone length for evaluation that ofloxacin might influence to fetal cartilage growth. Even though this sample size is small. this results will be helpful to counsel pregnant women who exposed to ofloxacin during pregnancy.