Unraveling the tapestry of adverse cutaneous drug reactions: A clinico-epidemiological study

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that adverse drug responses on the skin can cause serious complications. Up to 2% of all adverse cutaneous medication eruptions are severe and life-threatening, however the majority of these reactions are benign. In order to quickly diagnose these grave cutaneous eruptions and start the necessary treatment, physicians should be aware of certain warning signs. To understand the causative drug, meticulous history and complete clinical examination is the key Primary objective is to find the common group of drugs causing adverse cutaneous drug reactions. Secondary objectives are to study their morphology, gender and age distribution. The cross-sectional study involved 130 patients. Informations including relevant history, clinical examination details, and drugs taken were noted in the pretested proforma. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected and graphically analysed. Data was studied under various aspects which included causative drugs, clinical presentation, age and gender ratio. SPSS Version 21.0 was used for most analysis and Microsoft Excel 2010 for graphical representation. Maculopapular rash, acneiform eruptions, urticarial rash, exfoliative dermatitis and fixed drug eruptions were the commonest forms of clinical presentations seen in our study. The cutaneous drug reactions were classified as per the study of Agarwal et al.The limitations of treating adverse cutaneous drug reactions are the varied range of clinical symptoms, the complexity of the various drug-host interactions, and the relative scarcity of laboratory tests that are available for any conclusive and confirmatory drug-specific testing. That's why knowledge of clinical presentations and common drugs causing it is a must.