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Serious cutaneous adverse reactions to traditional Chinese medicines
1Dermatology Unit, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore 169608. yllim@nsc.gov.sg
Introduction:
Serious cutaneous adverse reactions to traditional medicines are not well described or reported in the literature, despite growing use of these medicines.
Methods:
This is a case series of four patients who were found to have various serious cutaneous adverse reactions to the traditional Chinese medicines that they had taken.
Results:
In this series, there was a patient with toxic epidermal necrolysis from traditional Chinese medicine, another with acute generalised exanthematous pustulosis from piroxicam and salicylate-contaminated traditional Chinese medicine, and two patients with drug hypersensitivity syndrome--one from traditional Chinese medicine and the other from phenylbutazone-adulterated traditional Chinese medicine.
Conclusion:
The series illustrates that serious cutaneous adverse reactions do occur with traditional medicines and emphasises the importance of being aware of such reactions.
