Publication:

Clinicoepidemiological study of fixed drug eruption in tertiary care hospital

Background Adverse cutaneous drug reactions pose diagnostic difficulties due to a varied clinical manifestations and broad categories of causative agents. Fixed drug eruptions (FDE) are one of them. Present study aims i) to record various clinical features of FDE, their causative agents and ii) to study the pattern of morbidity in patients with FDE in a tertiary care hospital, Rajkot, Gujarat, India.

Methods The 88 patients with FDEs attending department of dermatology, venereology and leprosy at PDU govt. medical college and hospital, Rajkot, Gujarat from September 2018 to September 2020 were included after informed consent. After taking thorough history, complete blood count and biochemical tests were done. HIV testing was done in severe reactions with generalised involvement. Appropriate treatment was given with counselling regarding the offending drug for prevention of reaction in future.

Results The male patients were more affected than female patients with M: F ratio of 1.3:1. The most common age group affected was 21-30 years (22.7%). Antimicrobials were the most common offending drugs (43.2%). None of the patients were HIV reactive in our study. No mortality was reported in our study.

Conclusions The patterns of FDE and the causative drugs are remarkably different in our study. Knowledge of patterns and the causative agents helps in prevention of same reactions in future in patients.