Antibiotic-associated colitis.

Among 26,294 hospitalized patients monitored by the Boston Collaborative Drug Surveillance Program (BCDSP), 8,948 (34%) received at least one antibiotic, and none were diagnosed as having drug-induced colitis to in-hospital antibiotic exposure. Seven patients who had taken antibiotics as outpatients, however, were admitted with antibiotic-associated colitis. Six of these patients had taken lincomycin prior to the onset of symptoms; one had taken ampicillin. Six of the patients were hospitalized at a New Zealand hospital and one at a hospital in Canada. The five patients with lincomycin-associated colitis at the New Zealand hospital were admitted over an 11-month period. Severe colitis due to antibiotics has been a rare event in the BCDSP experience, especially in the United States.