Toxic epidermal necrolysis possibly linked to aztreonam in bone marrow transplant patients.
OBJECTIVE AND SETTING: After instituting aztreonam as part of antibiotic prophylaxis in bone marrow transplant (BMT) patients at the Seattle Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, the first two cases of toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) occurred in more than 250 BMT patients at this center. We have examined the possible cause-and-effect relationship between aztreonam and TEN. PATIENTS: The first patient was a 23-year-old man with acute lymphocytic leukemia receiving a BMT from a related mismatched donor. He experienced profound conjunctivitis and superficial bulla covering 60 percent of his body surface area (BSA). The second patient, a 32-year-old man with lymphoma, received a BMT from a matched unrelated donor. He exhibited lymphocytosis, acute conjunctivitis, and bullous lesions covering 60 percent of his BSA. INTERVENTIONS: Aztreonam was discontinued in both patients. The first patient was treated with pigskin grafting and the second was treated with topical silver sulfadiazine. RESULTS: Despite stabilization of symptoms, both patients eventually died of infectious complications. CONCLUSIONS: Histological data in both patients were more consistent with TEN than graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) in that dermal infiltrates were sparse or absent. The onset of cutaneous symptoms was of more acute onset than acute GVHD, and ocular complaints are uncommon in acute GVHD. Furthermore, the onset of TEN bore a closer temporal relationship to aztreonam than to other drugs administered.[1]References
- Toxic epidermal necrolysis possibly linked to aztreonam in bone marrow transplant patients. McDonald, B.J., Singer, J.W., Bianco, J.A. The Annals of pharmacotherapy. (1992) [Pubmed]
Annotations and hyperlinks in this abstract are from individual authors of WikiGenes or automatically generated by the WikiGenes Data Mining Engine. The abstract is from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.About WikiGenesOpen Access LicencePrivacy PolicyTerms of Useapsburg
