7 Types of Drugs that Can Cause Kidney Damage

The intake of certain medications can lead to kidney injury. In order to be safe with the usage of drugs, you should read and follow the instructions on the medicine label, and you should always consult your doctor whether you need to avoid any foods, beverages, or other drugs while using the medication. Here are 7 types of drugs that can be responsible for causing kidney damage.

What Can Cause Kidney Damage

Antiviral Drugs

Some antiviral drugs, such as acyclovir (brand name Zovirax), which is used to treat herpes, as well as tenofovir and indinavir, which are used to treat HIV, can cause kidney stones and kidney disease.

High Blood Pressure Drugs

Certain drugs for high blood pressure, such as captopril (brand name Capoten), can increase the risk of kidney damage.

Analgesics

Your kidneys can be damaged by using some analgesic drugs, including acetaminophen as well as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID), like ibuprofen, aspirin, and naproxen. None of these medicines should be taken regularly without talking to your healthcare provider.

COX-2 Inhibitors

These drugs are a type of NSAID that were made to protect the stomach. However, some of these drugs, such as celecoxib (brand name Celebrex), can increase the risk of developing kidney damage.

Two COX-2 inhibitor drugs, rofecoxib (Vioxx) and valdecoxib (Bextra) have been removed from the market because of cardiovascular toxicity.

Antibiotics

Certain antibiotics, such as methicillin, ciprofloxacin, sulfonamides, vancomycin, and bacitracin can be very dangerous to your kidneys if not taken correctly. The people with kidney problems can take these antibiotics only in small amounts.

Chemotherapy Drugs

Some chemotherapy drugs can cause kidney damage depending on the dose of the drug used and its combination with other drugs.

These drugs include carboplatin, cisplatin, cyclosporine, pamidronate, interferons, bevacizumab, quinine, mitomycin C, and tacrolimus.

Heartburn Drugs

A number of heartburn drugs of the proton pump inhibitor class can harm your kidneys, including lansoprazole (brand name Prevacid), omeprazole (brand name Prilosec), rabeprazole (brand names Rabecid, Aciphex), pantoprazole (brand name Protonix), and esomeprazole (brand names Nexium, Esotrex).