Open AccessA six-month prospective study to find out the treatment outcome, prognosis and offending drugs in toxic epidermal necrolysis from an urban institution in Kolkata
Author(s) -
Sudip Das,
Ajitesh Roy,
Indranil Biswas
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
indian journal of dermatology/indian journal of dermatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.395
H-Index - 36
eISSN - 1998-3611
pISSN - 0019-5154
DOI - 10.4103/0019-5154.110826
Subject(s) - medicine , toxic epidermal necrolysis , prospective cohort study , dexamethasone , drug , drug reaction , emergency medicine , pediatrics , intensive care medicine , dermatology , pharmacology
Toxic epidermal necrolysis is the life-threatening dermatological emergency, most often an adverse cutaneous drug reaction with high mortality. A 6-month prospective study was conducted in our institution to find out the offending drugs, to assess the prognosis on admission using SCORTEN: Severity of illness score and to find out the treatment outcome. Anticonvulsants, NSAIDs and sulphonamides are the common offending agents; but in our study, 2 were due to homeopathic medicines. Out of 20 patients, on the date of admission SCORTEN prognostic score was 2 in 11 patients, 3 in 8 patients and 4 in 1 patient. Eighteen patients were treated with dexamethasone intramuscular injection and 2 patients got intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG). All patients survived without any mortality. Though improvement was slightly faster with IVIG, early administration of corticosteroids was also of encouraging efficacy and should be considered in developing countries due to low cost. No mortality in our study suggests need to validate the SCORTEN index in our country in a large number of patients.