Drug reactions Professor W K Jacyk

Drug reactions Cutaneous drug reactions are very common Only few drugs cause characteristic eruptions The same drug may cause different skin lesions in different patients and in the same patient at different time

Frequency of cutaneous drug reactions reflects an ‘innate’ capacity of the particular drug to cause this adverse effect and the frequency of its usage Once- penicillins Now- anticonvulsives -NSAIDS -ACE inhibitors

Fixed drug eruption

Management Value of a detailed history Very limited value of tests Rechallenge- caution! Symptomatic treatment depending on the morphology and severity of the reaction Genetic background of propensity to some drug reactions Allopurinol, procainamide, azathioprine