[Cutaneous adverse drug reaction: prospective study of 118 cases]

Few prospective studies are available on the incidence and analysis of the characteristics of adverse cutaneous drug reactions.

To describe the adverse cutaneous reactions, their epidemiologic characteristics as well as the different causative drugs through a prospective hospital study.

A 12-month prospective study was managed in our department of dermatology of the teaching hospital Hedi Chaker of Sfax. Requested information included patient characteristics (associated disorders), drug intake (list and chronology of the drug intake during the 3 weeks preceding the adverse reaction) and characteristics of the skin reaction (type, course). The diagnosis was based on a beam of clinical and anamnestic arguments. The drug imputability was evaluated according to the Begaud's French method.

One hundred eighteen cases were collected. A prevalence of 1.08/100 among patients consulting in dermatology department was estimated. The macular and papular exanthema represented the most frequent clinical aspects (42 cases) followed by acute urticaria (23 cases), photosensitivity (19 cases) and fixed drug eruption (15 cases). Principal imputable drugs were antibiotics, mainly penicillins followed by analgesics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory.

Although it was monocentric, this study revealed a high frequency of drug-induced dermatitis with different clinical presentation. The high incidence of drug-induced dermatitis induced by antibiotics, analgesics and anti-inflammatory is due to their widespread use, often in self-medication.