Publication:

Clinico etiological study of adverse cutaneous drug reactions

Background Adverse cutaneous drug reactions (ACDR) are the most frequent ADRs (30-45%) and are responsible for about 2% of hospital admissions and few can result in significant morbidity, health care costs, hospitalization, and death. To study different clinical patterns of ACDR, assess the cause and identify the offending drug and to study the relationship of ACDRs to age and sex among patients referred to the department of DVL, NRI General Hospital.

Methods This is a retrospective study of 70 cases of colorectal carcinoma analysing incidence, clinicopathological features and outcome after different therapies including surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. It was a descriptive hospital-based case series study. All out-patients and in-patients referred to the department of DVL, NRIGH, Chinakakani and in whom a diagnosis of ACDR is made, form the subjects for this study. The study was conducted over a period of two years.

Results 100 patients with adverse cutaneous drug reactions were included in the study. 42 (42%) were males and 58 (58%) were females. The age group ranged from 6 to 80 years with a maximum (43) belonging to 21 to 40 years. Maculopapular rash was most common followed by urticarial drug reaction, FDE, acneiform eruptions, EMF, erythroderma, DRESS, SJS, SJS/TEN, TEN and drug-induced hyperpigmentation. NSAIDs were the commonest culprits followed by antibiotics, antiepileptics and ATT.

Conclusions The commonest ACDR was maculopapular rash followed by urticaria, FDE and acneiform eruption. Antimicrobials as a group were the most common offending agents followed by individual drugs like diclofenac (13%), isoniazid (11%), efavirenz (9) and prednisolone (8%).