Retrospective analysis of fixed drug eruptions among patients attending a tertiary care center in Southern India

Abstract

How to cite this article: Pai VV, Kikkeri NN, Athanikar SB, Shukla P, Bhandari P, Rai V. Retrospective analysis of fi xed drug eruptions among patients attending a tertiary care center in Southern India. Indian J Dermatol Venereol Leprol 2014;80:194.

Clinical features, culprit drugs, and allergology workup in 41 cases of fixed drug eruption

“…The largest one by Mahboob and Haroon included 450 patients . Contrary to most reports, our study showed a slight female predominance. Similar results were also reported by Brahimi et al and Andrade et al In addition, we found that more than half of our patients were aged between 20 and 50 years, which is in accordance with some published data that confirm that FDE is frequent in young adults …”

“…Paracetamol intake, but not age or gender, was identified to be associated with a significant risk of bullous FDE onset. Several studies reported that FDE may preferentially involve certain anatomical sites such as the limbs, trunk, genitalia, or lips The upper limbs are the common site for FDE in our study, which corroborates the findings of Kavoussi et al and Jung et al In addition, a possible association between the offending drug and the localization was reported previously . In the current study, NSAID‐induced FDE was mostly localized on the extremities.…”

“…This type of FDE may appear after repeated exposures to the offending drug . About one‐third of our patients presented with a bullous FDE which is in accordance with many reports . For example, Jung et al noted a bullous lesions in 19 of 52 patients (36.5%) with FDE.…”

“…This finding is in accordance with other recent studies such as the one conducted by Heng et al and Andrade et al but not with the series of Mahboob and Haroon, in which NSAIDs represented only 9.6% . However, most reported series showed that antibiotics were the most incriminated drugs . Andrade et al reported that NSAIDs were the most frequently involved drugs (90.4%) and the list included almost all groups (eg, propionics, arylcarboxylics, coxibs), but not fenamates.…”

A Study to Evaluate the Role of Patch Test in the Etiological Diagnosis of Fixed Drug Eruption

“…After clinical resolution, the lesions remain quiescent and typically present as gray-brown macules or plaques on the skin, mucous membranes or on both for prolonged periods unless the causative drug is given. 15 The lesions usually flare within 30 min to 8 hours 15 after drug intake; mean length of time from drug intake to the onset of symptoms is approximately 2 hours. The previously involved sites do not necessarily flare with each exposure, which is known as the refractory period 16 .…”