A comparison of effects of fluoroquinolones on fracture healing (an experimental study in rats).

Background: The objective of the present study was to test and compare the effect of fluoroquinolones on fracture healing as assessed histopathologically.

Methods: A total of twenty five Wistar rats were arbitrarily assigned to five groups with five animals each. Bilateral closed femoral fracture was constructed manually in all groups. The first group did not receive any drug as control (C). The 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and the last group were treated with norfloxacin (N), ofloxacin (O), pefloxacin (P) and ciprofloxacin (Ci) respectively. Antibiotic administration was started on the 7th day after the fracture incident. All the treatments were discontinued twenty days after the incident all the rats were sacrificed , and the fracture calluses together with affected femurs were resected en bloc at the fourth week after fracture.

Results: Average healing grades of control group was higher than all the other antibiotic groups. Mean healing grades of control ( 5 ; n:8), ofloxacin (4.1; n:7), ciprofloxacin (3.9; n:8), norfloxacin (3.4 ; n:9) and pefloxacin groups (2.6 ; n:10) were recorded. Statistically significant differences between antibiotherapy groups ( excluding. norfloxacin) and the control group were detected.

Conclusions: The current histopathological study has shown that all the studied fluoroquinolones retarded fracture healing in rats.