Hepatitis, toxic epidermal necrolysis and pancreatitis in association with sulindac therapy

We report 2 patients who had serious adverse effects after taking sulindac. One of these patients developed toxic hepatitis and Stevens-Johnson/toxic epidermal necrolysis syndrome which resulted in death. Such fatal reaction to sulindac therapy has not been reported previously. There was temporal relation of ingestion of sulindac to 2 episodes of acute pancreatitis in the 2nd patient, strongly suggesting drug induction. Recent reports of similar side effects with other nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs suggest that these drugs may have potentially more serious toxicity than has been recognized.